But Everyone Came
by Jinxix
Summary: Frisk is a quiet child. They were a SOUL made of kindness and DETERMINATION. They withheld their tears and loved their enemy as a friend. However, they also kept a secret from those that had grown closest to them. A secret that could mean permanent death. No more RESETS. No more SAVES.
1. Relaxing day?

They stand there, surrounding you. Each of their faces are twisted, concealed by static. Their words break your heart, and it seemed their souls couldn't bare the burdens either. They all attacked you, their magic hurting your soul. The pain radiated through your body. For all the damage dealt to your soul, the damage ripped your body apart. Tears sting in your eyes and your body aches. Another attack, this one ramming you in the side. You are thrown across the darkness, and you can hear your own ribs snap and you could not help but scream. You cry for help.

But no one came.

Your eyes snap open, and you clutch at your side. You bite back the pain, resisting the urge to scream. You sat there, sweat dripping off your forehead down your face as the minutes tick by. The pain subsides enough that you manage to move, and carefully, you lift up your pajama top. Even in the darkness of your room, the discoloration of your skin running up your side became visible. The bruise only seemed to be getting more painful and more colorful every night. You twist around to check your other side and can't help but release a small yelp. Your ribs... you felt this pain before, but while you quietly assure yourself they're not cracked- maybe broken, you intrinsically know that they are. Now you turn, slower this time, to look at the other side. You stare at the poorly applied bandage, wrapped all the way around your waist. You had taken the bandage from the first aid kit your mom had bought the other day and had been trying your best to take care of yourself without causing worry. No one at this point seemed to have noticed, and this filled you with relief. As does the fact that your thrashing in your sleep has not re-opened the deep gash going across your side. You sigh and fall back into your bed.

You stare at the ceiling and the little glow-in-the-dark stars that you and Sans put up so you could memorize the universe. It made for a good distraction as the throbbing and aching slowly subsided. You look out your window to stare at the town outside. Snow blanketed the sidewalks, and the house across the street was dark. A street lamp flickered, or was that your eyelids, fluttering as sleep lured you back into its strange, painless embrace.

The next morning you awoke to a light tapping at your bedroom door. "Good morning, my child. It is time for you to awake and face the day!" Your mom called through the wooden door. You were quick to wake but slow to rise. Your cut hurt, more than it had the day prior. You got up and left the warmth of your bed and slipped off your pajamas and stared at your reflection in the mirror. Bruises of a variety of colors and sizes and cuts and scrapes in various stages of scabbing over littered your body. The bandage covered a lot of it, and small patches of old dried blood seeped through from some of the smaller cuts, but the gash on your side, there was fresh blood showing through. You slowly unraveled the bandage over the wounds and you felt your blood turn cold. The gash did seem to have opened up during the night, not much, but it scared you nonetheless. This gash was deep, and from the recent opening you could see white and yellow cloudy fluid coming out in parts. You were used to bruises and hurt bones, but cuts were new. You didn't know what to do with it, so you just told yourself it would be fine. You couldn't tell anyone, not your new family. You could just imagine the guilt, the hurt on their faces if they knew that they did this to you and didn't even remember. You sighed, picked back up the bandage and tied it tight around your waist, sure to wrap the cleaner part of the wrap around the wound.

You searched your wardrobe and found a sweater very much like the one you fell into the Underground in. Your mom had bought it for you just a few days before, a reminder of the one that had gotten so tattered during your time in the ruins. You slipped it, a pair of jeans, and fuzzy blue socks on and sat on the bed. Swinging your legs back and forth, you readied yourself and thought about the day ahead. Mom had planned an exciting day for you, a day of relaxing and hanging out with your friends after a long, stressful two weeks. You sighed, got up and left your room. You walked through the hall and into the kitchen, where the scent of eggs and bacon made your mouth water. You ran in and hugged your goat mother from behind. She was startled, but quickly turned around to return the act. "Good morning, my child. I trust you slept well?" You nodded without hesitation, too focused on the food to think about your lie.

"Well good. I hope you are ready to egg-perience your breakfast so you can baco-me a bigger, stronger Frisk!" You snorted. It seems your mom had been exchanging bad puns with Sans via text all night again. You shook your head and smiled.

"It's too early for bad puns, Mom! You are going to scramble my brains!" Mom smiled and giggled at your own bad pun. She was growing accustomed to being called mom again, and every time you referred to her that way it seemed to bring a bigger smile to her face each time. You sat at the table and were served your breakfast. It was only when you began to dig in did you become very dizzy, very suddenly. Your mom must have sensed it, or seen it on your face because she asked.

"Are you okay, Frisk? Perhaps you should take it easy today." You vigorously shake your head, making the dizzy spell only worse, but no matter what you were determined to hang out with everyone. You hadn't seen them much after coming above ground, as you had Ambassador duties to attend to and everyone else was settling down. Honestly, you were beginning to feel lonely. Your mom gave you a face, then shifted into a weak grin.

"Take things easy today with your friends, my child. Do not stress yourself." You smile and nod, the dizzy spell fading already. You ate, but it wasn't as much as you usually ate. You thought your stomach must be a tad upset. You bring the dishes up, kiss your mom on her soft furry cheek, and make a mad dash to the door. You make little time in getting on your snow boots and jacket and rush into the cold chill that was outside.

New New Home had been built in a matter of days, and it made you wonder just how useful your friends magic really was. While some were building homes from scratch, like Undyne, who's old house burned to the ground, and Alphys, who was kicked out of their old lab after being fired as Royal Scientist, others were taking apart and rebuilding their homes from below and bringing them above. Everyone had been too busy or too excited to spend much time with you and you were absolutely fine with that. You needed the time to think. Everything had happened so fast. In the beginning, after you had reached the surface, it had seemed like your whirlwind adventure had come to an end. Now, you were sure the Underground had been a walk in the park. Toriel and Asgore had asked you if you wanted to be Ambassador of the Monsters, and you had gladly accepted. That meant that when it came to your friends reemergence, it fell to you to straighten out the details and gain the humans support. So far, it had not been easy. Humans were hesitant to say the least, many outright xenophobic (a word you had only recently learned from your studies, something that has consumed virtually all of your free time). Humans were stubborn and stuck in their ways, Frisk knew that. However after days of work, arguing, debating, and nails bitten to the nub, the monsters were given land to stay on- the land right outside of Mt. Ebott. Frisk had brokered the deal so that soon more supplies and funds would trickle into the town. At least you hoped it would. These were all things that plagued your mind as you walked down the block to Sans and Papyrus' new home.

The skeleton bros too had built from scratch, but to you it looked the exact same. You walked up their perfectly shoveled driveway, the handiwork of Papyrus, up to the front door. You knocked, and then stood waiting for a response. There was a loud crashing sound coming from inside and you couldn't help but giggle. It sounded like Papyrus, in his haste, tripped and fell down the stairs, not funny in that of itself until you began hearing Sans berating his brother with bad jokes and puns about his mishap. It took a good minute or two before Sans answered the door, obviously ordered to by the currently preoccupied Papyrus.

"*hey kid. You're here kinda early. alphys and undyne haven't even showed up yet." He smiled, then again, Sans was always smiling. He wore the same grin plastered to his face. His eyes were tired looking, or, how ever a skeletons eye sockets could appear tired. He gave you the once over, and you gave him a look. Sans' appearance never really changed; he always wore a turtleneck (that seemed to be getting a bit dingy, you thought, perhaps Christmas present idea?) or an ironic/ punny tee-shirt, with basketball shorts and the same bright blue jacket that he never zipped up and always smelled of grease when he brought you in for a hug. Today he was wearing a tee-shirt that said in comic sans font "Periodically, I say a joke that knocks the O2 right outta ya." You always wondered where he got such bad tees.

"*oh, you want to come in. 'wondered why you were just standing there." He opened the door wide and you walked in. The living room was the same as it was in Snowdin, though the wallpaper was a different shade and the furniture was newer. You took off your snow boots but didn't bother taking off your jacket. Soon after coming Aboveground, you learned the skeleton brothers did not feel the cold, so they never turn on their heater, so it was as cold inside as it was out. That explained how Papyrus wore his battle armor without freezing. You lined them up next to the door and took a seat next to Sans on the couch. Papyrus had made it into the kitchen, and was busy cooking. You didn't have the heart nor the appetite to wonder what delicious pasta he was butchering into something completely inedible.

"HELLO, DEAR HUMAN. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM PREPARING A MIGHTY FEAST FOR YOUR DAY OF RELAXATION! NYEHEHE!" He ran over, leaned down to give you a hug, then rushed back to the kitchen. He was wearing a sweater with little fall leaves dancing around his waist and sleeves, the colors a muted tone to match the leaves that had fallen and littered the ground just a few days before the sudden snowfall. He had on a pair of jeans that sagged around his bones, and you found yourself curious as to how they didn't fall off.

"*so kid, you excited about today?" Sans asked, his voice slightly monotonous with a tinge of affection. You nod. It would be a day of snow forts and snowball fights, snowman building and snow angel making, and after everyone grew tired of that everyone was going to settle down with hot cocoa and Alphys' new anime obsession. It would be a great day to take your mind off things.

"*tori called earlier. if you're not feelin' okay, just holler. you do look kinda pale, kid, we could just relax for the day. tibia honest, i am perfectly fine with doing nothing. you know how much of a lazy bones i am." You grin, but inside you know he is right. You weren't feeling too hot, actually, you were feeling really hot, but still you kept on your jacket. You make a face thinking about this revelation. A moment later, you looked up and gave the skeleton a wide grin.

"I'm fine! I can play all day with you guys! I've been really excited to go sledding with Papyrus and Undyne and make snow piles with you, Sans!" Sans giggled at that.

"*as long as you're up to it kid, we will play all day if you want." His smile grew and he threw his arm around your shoulder.

"*wanna watch TV till undyne and alphys get here?" You nod. As the only house in New New Home that received cable, Sans and Papyrus were your go-to spot in the first few days to watch and study politicians debate and talk. That part was your studying, though you admit you occasionally flipped between that and your favorite cartoon when things were getting tedious in the debate. Sans flipped on the TV and together you began to watch a bad sci-fi movie about monsters. Sans at every opportunity made fun of the inaccuracy of it, and you couldn't help but laugh. Meanwhile, Papyrus busied himself in the kitchen, and while you felt kinda bad for not asking if he needed help, you also knew that you would have spent the next hour hearing about how, the Great Papyrus, is an expert chef who needs no help from anyone but master chef Undyne. You could smell burning, and hear the occasional "NYEH" or "I AM A GENIUS" escape the kitchen. You roll your eyes as you can only think about the indescribable tastes you have will face later.

It was an hour later when Alphys and Undyne arrived. Alphys said hello and gave you a small, cute hug before retreating over to the TV and setting up her anime collection for later. She had on a long brown sweater and bright blue scarf that fell to her ankles. You thought she looked so tiny and cute you wanted to hug her again, but before you could Undyne came over and tried to suplex you. You knew how badly that would hurt, with or without hurt ribs, and opted to initiate the hug by going for her long legs. She blushed, but quickly recovered by leaning down and messing up your hair. She matched her girlfriend, but the colors were inverted. The bright blue of her sweater brought out the red of her hair, which you noted, was longer and tied up. Her eye patch was gone, with just a strip of bangs covering that eye. Goodness, these two were just too cute for you to handle.

"So kid, what we gonna do today? Fight? Make snow forts? PELT OUR ENEMIES IN A HOLY HAIL OF SNOWBALL-FURY?" Undyne gave you a toothy grin. You released her legs and ran for the door, slipping on your boots and you began shacking from excitement. Was it excitement? You couldn't tell. No matter what, you were going to play in the snow, have fun, and enjoy your friends company for the short time you could. You were determined to have fun. Sans snickered.

"*looks like the kid ain't waitin' around." He hoped off the couch and slipped on his slippers. He zipped up his trademark hoodie and you ran out the door as quickly as you could. He followed you outside, and so did everyone else. Papyrus was the last out, as he was no doubt putting out a fire or two and setting his meal on simmer.

You all began simple- snowmen. Undyne and Papyrus started to build a snow sculpture together until Sans had to say something.

"*hey, ya know, those look great, bro. but i can't help but wonder... are you just throwin' undyne a bone and lettin' her off easy? 'cause there isn't another human or monster that can build a snowman like you, bro." This began the Great Snowmen Massacre (no monster snowmen were hurt in this competition). It took many attempts, many snowmen ambushes, and their subsequent destruction until finally you declared it a draw between Papyrus and Undyne. Personally, you liked Alphys' try at making the main character of the Mew Mew anime she loved to watch, but you didn't want to see it destroyed in a fury of Undyne. During the chaos, you took it upon yourself to bury Sans (who had laid down and fallen asleep at some point in the snowman competition he started) and shape the snow around him like a giant robot. Alphys had helped when you got stuck on what to do.

Next came the most epic snowball battle in history. Undyne, with great passion, made a massive arsenal of tightly packed snowball. Papyrus and yourself built a fort out of Sans, who had since woken up but refused to move. Just as you began making your own arsenal of snow, snow hurled at incredible speeds began whizzing through the fort and the surrounding air. You ducked, and one barely missed you, but to your left Papyrus, who was much larger and taller than you, took one to the chest. He was thrown back about ten feet. You managed to flee to your fallen friend, and swore to him vengeance. Together you came up with a plan. Papyrus stood, and walked over to the rampaging fish, and offered to her the opportunity to train. Undyne dropped her loaded snowball and cracked her knuckles.

"Oh, THIS is going to be fun. What are we practicing today? Are we sparring? Fighting? ATTACKING?" She asked, her grin growing.

"NO, WE ARE PRACTICING DODGING." And before Undyne could speak up, Papyrus ducked and you threw a snowball as hard as you could. Hit her right between the eyes. Her fury grew red hot, and her fins on her the side of her face spread in anger. She yelled, smiling of course, and scooped up as much snow as she could into a large boulder-shaped snowball. Instinctively you and Papyrus looked to each other and ran. She chased you around the yard until finally you hid behind Fort Sans (who was giggling and making wise cracks about, well, everything). It seemed Undyne forgot Sans was there and tripped over him as she tried to plow through the fort, causing all four of you to tumble and fall. Sans didn't even wait.

"That situation sure snowballed." He laughed while Undyne and Papyrus yelled at him, smiling. They didn't stop until they noticed you weren't making a sound. They looked over to see you hugging your sides. The fall had only aggravated your ribs and you think you opened up your cut even more. It burned. You were burning up. Everyone huddled around you.

"*kid, you okay? you didn't take that hard a hit, did ya?"

"HUMAN, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT? YOU LOOK PALE FOR A HUMAN. AND I SHOULD KNOW, I HAVE BECOME FRIENDS WITH MANY!"

Sans leaned right in front of you and looked you straight in the eye. His floating white pupils were studying your face and you tried to hide you pain as best you could. It didn't seem to be working.

"*kid, you don't look alright. let's get ya inside and relax for a bit then call it a day, okay?" He picked you up like a little kid and carried you inside. Alphys, who had slipped out from the commotion and headed inside, sat with hot cocoa in her lap as she readied a spot on the floor for her and Undyne to share. She seemed to have been busy because on the table laid a mug of cocoa for each of you. Sans sat you down on the couch and took off his jacket and covered you in it. You were thankfully for the gesture. You were shivering, but you didn't feel cold at all, just really hot and sweaty, and all of a sudden, really tired. Your side hurt, and you couldn't help but hide your hand underneath the jacket to put pressure on your cut. Everyone settled in around you, Papyrus to you side on the couch and Undyne and Alphys snuggled on the floor. Sans brought over your hot cocoa then sat next to you. Alphys turned on episode one of the anime and you all began to watch. Not long into the show your head began to swim and feel much, much heavier. You rested it on Sans' shoulder. He gave you a lingering glance, but you gave him a reassuring smile. He returned a small grin and continued watching. Then your eyelids began to feel heavy, and slowly they fluttered down. It started becoming hard to breathe.

"*kid?" Sans whispered, twisting his bones to look at you. Your head fell into his lap as it slipped from his shoulder. You remember his sockets growing wide but his pupils shrinking to a pinpoint, and then him yelling. The rest you don't recall.


	2. I know a short-cut

The kid hadn't been looking good, you realized that, but you hadn't realized the extent. After coming inside, you thought if Frisk relaxed and took it easy they'd be fine. You kept a close eye on them, but it wasn't close enough it seemed. As you watched the show and began to zone out, you could feel the weight of the kid's head slowly increase on your shoulder. You looked over and they smiled, so it seemed all was well. But then the kid began to wheeze, and you could feel their body going limp. You twisted around to see what the issue was when the kid falls into your lap, their face twisted with... pain? God that was new. You hadn't seen that since before you had come above ground. You tried to shake the kid awake, but their face and body only grew tighter and tenser. Alphys paused the show, and everyone looked over to see.

"What the hel- HECK- is going on, Sans? We were just getting to the princess with the massive sword!" Undyne looked at the kid and her face turned from anger to confusion.

"They aren't supposed to look like that, right? RIGHT?!" She was standing now, grabbing and shaking the kid with vigor. Alphys stopped her when she too noticed the kid was curling up in pain the more they were moved.

"Th-is isn't right..." Alphys put her clawed hand to the kids forehead, then jerked it back and her eyes grew wide.

"Humans are- aren't supposed to be that hot!" You quickly pick up Frisk and lay them on the ground as gently as you could. You could feel your bones rattling. You remove your jacket from their shoulders and then unzip Frisk's own jacket. Underneath was a sweater just like the one you first met them in... except one major difference. There was a blot of red coming from their side, seeping into the sweater. There was a lot. You look at the kids jacket and you saw a lot of bright red going up the side of the coat too. Alphys put her hands to her face and froze. You look up at her and tried to keep your cool.

"*what the fuck is going on, alphys?" She doesn't say anything, just leans down and puts her claws to the kids side and pushes down. The kid winced and their back arched in pain. Before you knew it you had pushed Alphys off the kid as hard as you could, sending her a few feet back, landing onto her back. She re-adjusted her thick glasses. She didn't look at you. Undyne looked furious, but just as she pointed her fist at you and began threatening Alphys interrupted her.

"S-Sans, c-call Toriel. Right now. Papyrus, Un-Undyne, you gu-guys need to get some hot water and as many towels as you can." You all were shocked. Alphys was ordering you around and hardly stuttering at all. She got back up and lifted the kids shirt. Normally you wouldn't have looked, it wasn't your place, but the white of the bandage wrapped around the kid's waist got your attention first. The next was the blood. There was a lot of it, fresh, emanating all from the same spot. There were other, smaller blotches all down the bandage, but these were old. No, whatever was gushing out the fluid was big and open. There was lots of cuts and scraps, lots of ugly bruises too. All over the kid. You felt your own hand reach for your chest in surprise and disgust. You could hear Alphys muttering under her breath. You didn't look up, you couldn't if you'd tried, but you could hear Undyne and Papyrus' reactions. Undyne was yelling, scared; swearing every other word. Papyrus was silent, but you could almost hear the tears welling up in his eyes. Alphys looked up from the kid and shot death glares at the three of you. "F-Frisk is in danger of dying and you are all st- standing there doing nothing! They need our help a-and they need it NOW!" Alphys' yelling spurred all three of you into action. You whipped out your cell and speed dialed Toriel.

"Oh, Sans! I wasn't expecting you to call this early! Is Frisk ready to-"

"*tori, we need you to come over. right now. It is an emergency." Toriel gasped and you hung up. The kid needed your attention, and Tori would get an explanation when she got here. Alphys began unwinding the kid's bandage. Underneath was hell. Blood had smeared all over the kids stomach and back, covering other cuts, nicks, and bruises in red. The source of the blood looked to have been a deep, deep gash going down the kid's side. Fresh blood was gushing from the wound, and so was white fluid. The flesh surrounding the wound was red and puffy, and it looked painful. God, how the fuck did the kid do it. Who fucking knew how long they'd been like this. How come none of you'd noticed?!. You could feel your eye sockets furrow. Alphys took the blanket she and Undyne had been laying on, balled it up, and pressed it into the bleeding gash.

"*what so you need me to do?" You ask. Alphys doesn't answer. You grab Frisk's hand and hold it to your bowed head. God were you stupid. If you had just paid more attention, if you had just spent those five extra minutes with the kid you might've noticed. Now the kids bleeding out and you were holding their fucking hand being so damn useless. As you internally kicked yourself, in the background you heard Papyrus and Undyne screaming at each other, and loud bangs and crashes as they searched for anything that could be used a towel. You heard Pap filling up something with water, and you could hear Undyne screaming, mostly at herself. They hurried back over, handing a tower of sheets and towels over to Alphys. Alphys didn't even look up. She grabbed a loose towel and replaced the blanket that was now soaked with a fresh towel and pressed down harder.

"G-get a sma-small towel and soak it in the water, the-then place it on their forehead." You didn't even notice. You were so entranced by your thoughts of self-hate and bitterness you didn't even hear the loud knocking at the door. Toriel was yelling.

"SANS? SANS! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" You didn't want to let her in, you didn't want her to see. Toriel had already lost two of her children in the Underground, not to mention the other six humans that fell. Pap or Undyne must have let her in and boy did she storm in. She was just about to give you the scolding of a lifetime, but took one look at Frisk, the child only recently brought into her life and fell to her knees. Pap and Undyne tried to support her, but she could not look away. It took Alphys beginning to swear under her breath did the Queen of monsters rise and go to her child's side. She began trying to heal Frisk's wounds, but it wasn't enough. While Toriel's magic was good for bumps and bruises, this was outside of even a Boss Monster's expertise.

"We need to take them to a human doctor. Now." She said as calmly  
as she could, but her voice was shaking. If you recalled correctly, the nearest human hospital was over 50 miles away, there was no way the kid was gonna make it if they walked it. Unless...

"*i'll take them. i know a short cut."


	3. Tears, Blame, and Smiles

SANS POV

It was agreed. Alphys and Toriel took Frisk and wrapped them tightly in blankets and towels, careful of the wound, till the only part of the kid showing was their flushed face. The kid's condition was deteriorating quickly, even you could see that. Frisk had sweat beading off of their face, and their face looked pale; too pale.

Toriel picked up her child, so small in her large frame, and hugged the child to her chest. Tears stained her fur but no longer did the tears fall. No, now there was anger and frustration in the mother's eyes. Toriel leaned down and handed Frisk to you, idling as she held up the child's head and placing a light kiss on their forehead. You didn't wait any longer. You COULDN'T wait any longer. You walked out the door, leaving behind your family staring at Frisk's blood staining the family room carpet.

You ran and you didn't stop. You looked for rips in the space-time, short-cuts made by the countless number of RESTARTS and SAVES made by the very kid dying in your arms. When you enter a tear, you feel the space warp around you. In the beginning, it left you nauseous and sick, but now you had grown so used to the feeling it was second nature. You looked down to check on the kid and saw their face twisted in discomfort. You didn't stop, though, and only sought out more of these short-cuts. In a matter of minutes, you had traveled half way to your destination, but after that last pathway, you didn't see too many shortcuts that shot you toward your destination. Looked like you would be on foot for the next segment of your journey. You looked around your surroundings. You had been dropped into the middle of the thick woods that surrounded the mountain. Snow was falling heavier now and piling up quickly around you. Snow wrapped around your legs and slowed your every step. It was a pretty good thing you could be fast when you wanted to be.

Tree branches buckled under the weight of the piling snow and one snow poof fell on you and the kid as you ran through the trees. You loosened an arm from beneath the kid and brushed off as much snow as you could from the kid's face. You could feel the sweat begin to bead off the top of your skull. Exhaustion was beginning to set in, and the kid was beginning to slip from your grasp. You grasped them closely to your ribs and carried on. This was going to be a long walk.

LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE POV

The room was frozen as all eyes stared into the pool of blood Frisk left behind. All eyes dared not move when Undyne slammed her fist into the wall. Her hands shook in anger and she bit back a scream. It was a long minute before anyone moved. Alphys was slow to her feet but walked over to comfort her girlfriend.

"WHAT...THE FUCK WAS THAT BRAT THINKING?! HOW LONG... HOW LONG WERE THEY LIKE THAT?! HOW THE FUCK DID NONE OF US NOTICE A FUCKING THING?! HOW?!" Undyne yelled, releasing a hiss of anger as Alphys rubbed her back in comfort. No one dared respond. No one had the courage to say the words haunting every mind in the room. How did Frisk get hurt like that?

"I'm supposed to be their bestie... besties tell each other everything... Especially when you're hurt." Tears streamed down Undyne's face and she made no attempt to conceal it. Alphys took Undyne into a shaky hug, careful to avoid touching Undyne with the blood coating her claws.

Papyrus, who was so silent you almost forgot he was there, spoke up. "YOU ALL DO NOT THINK... THAT WE INFLICTED THOSE WOUNDS ON FRISK, DO YOU?" He didn't dare look up from the stain on the floor.

In the Underground, it had not gone unnoticed that Frisk appeared disheveled. They were always careful of hiding underneath their oversized sweater when a wandering eye caught sight of a something strange beneath the matted and distressed fabric. When confronted with questions, Frisk shut down, and the already silent child became even colder and distant and refused to look at anyone for days. They flinched if someone moved too quickly or spoke too harshly, but they never cried. After the monsters blacked out before the barrier was broken, it appeared that Frisk had been through quite an ordeal. Their sweater was ripped on the side but their HP had not gone down and nor was there any blood so the monsters had dismissed any thoughts of injury. Any thoughts regarding Frisk and what happened were overtaken by thoughts of the Surface. It had been two weeks and no one had noticed. No one.

"...a few of those wounds are burns... fire... my fire... these hands hurt that child and yet they still called me their mother. Frisk... that child..."

"FRISK COULD NOT ALWAYS AVOID MY ATTACKS WHEN WE FOUGHT... DID I... DID I CAUSE THEM THAT MUCH PAIN?" Papyrus fell to his knees with his gloved hands covering his sobbing sockets. Everyone's minds tried to wrap around the facts. Frisk was hurt, dying, and yet somehow none of the monsters had noticed. Sure, the child was quiet and private about their thoughts, but that never stopped them from speaking their mind when they felt the time was right. Frisk never complained or whined, the opposite, if they were troubled they took care of it, rarely asking for help. It had only been two weeks since the child began to live with their monster family, and while things were still settling down, a lot about the child was still an enigma. They were a saint; always kind and generous almost to a fault, headstrong and focused, yet at the same time, always looked sad. Some nights they were caught stalking the house's hallways with tears flowing from their eyes, their body limp and shaking. They always apologized profusely as Toriel carried them back to their room. She shushed the child, murmuring soft words to console her child and put them to back to bed, lulling them to sleep with songs or stories. The mornings after these events, Frisk became anxious and panicked, especially around their mother, avoiding any attempt of their mothers to discuss the night before. Toriel understood, for the most part, the child's hesitance, though it still stung the mother's SOUL.

"That brat... that wimp didn't say a goddamn thing. This... this is all my GODDAMN FAULT." Undyne shook in anger. No one said a thing, not even Alphys as she froze in rubbing her girlfriend's back.

"Y-you didn't do it... you couldn't have... rig-right?" Alphys was convincing herself of Undyne's innocence. Undyne had been the most... intense... fighter in the Underground, and more passionate about helping save monsterkind than anyone. And she was going to do anything possible in order to do so. Including killing Frisk. The room grew colder. Toriel glared at the wall as thoughts of burning it down crossed her mind. She dipped her head and sighed, placing a paw on Papyrus' shoulder. She gripped it tightly, her only lifeline at this given moment.

"Now… Now is not the time for self-pity. Frisk is to come first and foremost and we shall take our beatings after the child is well again. We must atone for our crimes, but now is not the time." She patted the sobbing skeletons shoulder and thought aloud.

"The humans have afforded us a few vehicles for building. We shall use one in order to meet with Sans at the human hospital. I shall call and inform Asgore, he will need to know what is going on..." She paused. Asgore, despite what Toriel had thought of him, had earned the respect of the humans and the love of Frisk. The child thought of him as a father, however, the word always seemed to lay thick on their tongue, and they winced occasionally after saying it. However since the first few days aboveground, the King had been whisked away all over the world in order to garner support for his people. Frisk had helped here on the homefront, but as they were so young Asgore took much of the political responsibilities onto himself. However now was not the time to tip toe around Asgore and the nuances of politics. Now was the time to tell him that the child that he loved and adored was quite possibly... dying. Toriel looked to Alphys and Undyne.

"Return home, pack a bag, and we shall reconvene here within the hour and head off." She leaned and hugged the sobbing skeleton, and she left his skeleton's home and returned to her own. She did not want to allow the others to see her breakdown. Alphys carefully guided Undyne to the door and they both returned to their home. This left Papyrus alone, and he could feel his shoulders sag as he got up and prepared for the long night. The house was quiet, eerily so. The joy and laughter that filled the home only an hour before was gone and replaced with the simmering of food left on the stove. Papyrus went into the kitchen and turned off the stove and admired his burnt meal. He was sure Frisk would have loved it, they always did, even when they made weird little faces after each bite. They always smiled. Papyrus loved the human's smile. Often it reminded the tall skeleton of Sans smile, a facade to hide the pain and sadness in their eyes, sometimes it was determined and pure like Undyne's, or weak and shy like Alphys'. When that smile was genuine, though, it lit up the room. Papyrus wanted to see that smile again.


	4. Sins

Afternoon had turned to early evening by the time Sans made it to the human hospital. He burst through the emergency room doors only to be greeted by the fearful gazes of the humans within. None of them had seen a monster in the flesh (or lack thereof) before, and meeting one carrying a human child, the very same human child some recognized as giving a speech on the TV in the background of the E.R., who had blood all over them? Suffice to say this meeting did not give a very good first impression.

The room was huge, cold, and sterile. The linoleum on the floor not covered in the snow Sans tracked in was white and mint green. No one moved, not until Sans' bit back voice suddenly broke the silence.

" ***humans.** " His eyes turned dark, floating pinpoints gone. " ***this kid is gonna bleed out if you just stand there with your head up your ass.** " This kicked two nurses into action. One was a thick-set older woman with thin lips pursed tight, the other a much younger human that was thinner than the other human with fearful eyes and painted lips. The older nurse gently lifted Frisk from the skeletons loosening grasp, and the other pulled up a stretcher. After placing the child down, they began pushing away from the skeleton into a segment of the room shut off by hanging sheets. Another nurse approached Sans, but by now the skeleton was gone to the world, his pupils fixated on the triage bay Frisk was taken to. He could hear a nurse yelling, asking for help. Sans looked into his hands. Some of the kid's blood had managed to make it onto his bony hands. He could hear himself, in another timeline, watching was the kid died over and over again by the hands of the same people they called their family. The image of their bones breaking and body going limp; being impaled by spears time and time again; being electrocuted and stomped on to the point that Sans could only hear muffled screams for help; the sound of their SOUL breaking- the images overlapped to the point Sans could no longer tell this reality from another. He had sat there and done nothing. Now was no different, was it? Sans began to feel his shoulders start shaking, but he didn't much care. The shaking became more vigorous, and Sans snapped back to this reality only to find a nurse actually had to shake him out of his stupor.

"Hello? Hello?! mr... miss? Monster, what is going on?"

"*uh sorry... the kid's name is frisk, they're the ambassador to monsters? This morning they came over to hang out... and play... when this happened. i... have no idea how this happened..." it never happened before, Sans thought to himself.

"Okay... can you describe the patient... Frisk's... injuries?" Her face seemed to hesitate on the ambassador's name, wondering if it was really that or if the skeleton was making a fool of her.

"*yeah. blood... lots of it. 'kid was bruised and had these small nicks and scratches... and that big cut down their side... is the kid even gonna make it?" Sans voice croaked out those last words, barely keeping himself steady. The nurse sighed and guided him over to the waiting bay, where every other human moved as far away from the monster as they possibly could. Some even left. The nurse sat down with the monster, totally unafraid, and held his spastic shoulder.

"Sir, you need to calm down. We need your help if we are going to get anything done for... Frisk." She handed Sans a clipboard with a bunch of paperwork.

"I need you to fill this out to the best of your ability. Is there anyone I need to call? Anyone else for the child?"

"*i...i don't know. the rest of the kid's family is coming... they'll... they'll know more." The nurse sighed, getting up, leaving the paperwork. Sans thought she was done dealing with him, but she returned just a few minutes later with a wet cloth.

"Here, you can use this to clean yourself up. I will fill you in as we go along, alright, sir?"

"*sans... call me sans."

"Sans then." The nurse handed the cloth to the skeleton and returned to her duties. Sans wished he could pull up his hood and curl up into a ball, but he had given his jacket to the kid. So now he sat, staring up at the ceiling as he counted down from a thousand to try and calm himself down. It was just like any other nightmare- a dream of a time that either never actually happened or did despite Sans' best efforts to pretend it didn't. Only there was one huge difference with time. This wasn't a dream, he was awake and he couldn't believe it. He could absentmindedly hear the humans around him muttering, some whispering, some of the children yelling and gawking.

Rude.

All this time he had relied on the previous timelines for what to do, what to say, what to think. This had never happened before, he knew that even through the haze of memories. He was lost, more so than any other time. Even when he lost his brother he knew... what would occur. Even when he held the kid after someone killed them, over and over again, he knew the results every time. Frisk had only ever resorted to violence when they were afraid or died to many times and only fought back to scare someone. They were scared and that was the only time they hurt anyone. Over time, they too learned from the previous timelines regarding what to do or say, but that never stopped their friends from killing them. Sans saw the look in their eyes after a bad night, and he never really wanted to admit how often they had those bad times. They were scared but for whatever reason they never blamed anyone. When Sans say that faraway look and they noticed, they just smiled.

Sans held the cloth and wiped his bones, but the feeling did not go away. He felt his sins crawling up his back. His sin of blissful ignorance to the kid's condition just made him shiver. He wiped the blood from his hands but the feeling remained. Sans felt sick.


	5. Tired Dreams

Frisk could feel their every nerve burn, every fiber of their being torn apart. They felt heavy, they felt... tired. More so than they ever had before. Frisk's head felt foggy, and they could tell they weren't processing anything right. They could hear a familiar voice, one deep and with a discernible drawl, but Frisk couldn't make out what was said. They were too tired to care. Frisk could feel being picked up, and the jiggling of being carried. The pain increased the more Frisk moved. They could only weakly curl up in order to minimize the damage. Once it stopped, Frisk began to lose touch, their consciousness falling deeper and deeper into the darkness.

An alarming thought, this dream was different. This dream was not faint memories of timelines gone by; no dust coating the floor; no illusions of grandeur. No, this time, there was only darkness. It was no out of body experience either, no, Frisk felt as though they were falling, and the further they fell, the more the darkness engulfed them.

Another alarming thought, Frisk knew they were dying. Perhaps it was memories from SAVES and RESETS long ago, but they could remember the sensation of death. Even falling through the darkness, Frisk could feel their wounds seeping into this nightmare. They could register the pain was there, but Frisk no longer cared. Time after time of dying had numbed the child. However, there was a secret Frisk had kept to themselves, one that they could not bring themselves to share, that now was at the forefront of Frisk's mind. Since leaving the Underground, Frisk had found they could no longer make or load SAVES. And as Frisk felt themselves die, they found themselves contemplative. Perhaps it would be for the better; The looks Sans gave Frisk when he thought they weren't looking, the nightmares, the sins of the past never fading from their mind. The look on their mother's face the last time Frisk saw her alive. Frisk felt themself a coward for thinking such thoughts.

It no longer mattered. Frisk would die and their past would be buried. No one needed to know, Frisk never wanted anyone to know the truths that Frisk had hidden deep within their heart; within their SOUL. As they sank further and further, and the darkness consumed Frisk's limbs, relief filled the child. Frisk had not wanted to die, but they had been so afraid to live. Frisk felt calm, tranquil, for the first time in their life Frisk felt okay. Scary how it took dying for the child to feel such a sensation. Then they felt something, an invisible force, push them back up into the light. Dread filled the child, and they felt their body thrash. They heard voices pierce through the black.

"... coming back."

"... take to..."

The pain became so great, it overcame Frisk's mental barriers. Breathing was a struggle, a fight that Frisk felt they were going to lose. There was something draped upon their face, up behind Frisk's ears and down below their nose, rubbery and cold, like smooth plastic. It went up their nose, adding to the feeling of discomfort. They could feel that they had something poking their skin in different areas. It was a weird feeling, something was holding it in place, but it didn't quite feel normal. Like elastic tape? It pulled on the skin and the hairs on their arms, but Frisk couldn't muster the energy to do anything about it. Sounded like a great deal of effort. As Frisk analyzed, the pain began to fade, and as it went, so did Frisk's consciousness. They were so tired.

So very tired.

(I will update again later today because this chapter is just so small... the next one will be a lot longer!)


	6. Pain and Puns

Sans sat frozen. He counted every ceiling tile, every slight flickering of the incandescent lights, every time a parent shielded their curious child from approaching the skeleton. It wasn't until the nurse from before reemerged that he actually moved. The nurses eyes were darting between Sans and the incoming doors, a slight panic in her expression. Sans shifted his skull so he could see what was freaking the nurse out looked up to see the rest of the kid's monster family waiting at the door. Everyone looked and acted polar opposite to how they normally were. Toriel and Alphys were barely restraining themselves from yelling at the triage nurse who refused to divulge any information.

*tough human, Sans thought.

Papyrus was shy and had a far away look in his sockets, looking around the room of humans nervously. Sans felt anxious just looking at his bro. Undyne... was quiet. Sans had expected her to come in guns ablazing, but instead the fish warrior stood silent, arms crossed and back hunched. Between her and Papyrus, Sans began to feel restless. He left his seat and the untouched paperwork and greeted the family.

"*hey."

They all stared at the smaller skeleton for a moment, all but Undyne, who was turned to stare down a nearby wall like she wanted to punch it. *whoop there she is. Toriel and Alphys stopped badgering the nurse for answers and switched targets to the skeleton. The two monsters berated him with questions, their voices growing louder the more Sans shrank into his jacket.

"S-sans, where is Frisk? W-what is their condition?"

"Where is Frisk, Sans? WHERE IS MY CHILD?!" Toriel growled, tears streaming down her fur. She placed both her paws on the skeleton's shoulders, relying on him for support as she quietly cried.

"I can't lose another one... I can't..." One of the nurses who had taken Frisk from Sans- the one with tight lips- appeared again, this time with a doctor in tow. The doctor was in scrubs, and these scrubs were covered in blood. Sans knew exactly who's it was.

"Perhaps we should talk about this in a more private setting."

The monsters were ushered into a private consultation room, asked to sit, and wait. The tension was palatable and all eyes were on the doctor... mostly the blood staining his garments. He stood, watching the monsters faces carefully. He made no effort to hide his distrust and distaste. At least he was honest.

"You all are that child's family, correct? Well, that is certainly new." And forward, it seemed.

"I am going to be completely candid. That little girl-"

"They. They are a they." said the monster group in unison.

"- **They** \- were on death's door when they walked into my E.R., and I'm going to be frank with you. They have three broken ribs on their left side, one healing at an angle that had positioned the rib precariously close to the lung that it has caused the lung to bruise. We need to have a proper x-ray done to see the extent of the damage, but we will have to break the rib AGAIN in order to place it right." Both skeleton brothers shivered. The idea of Frisk having broken bones made Sans' stomach lurch, and since he did not have a stomach to lurch that was saying something.

"Not to mention the number of minor wounds that didn't need to get to the severity they are at. However, that it's not why we are here, now is it? That cut down their right side was deep. Deep enough to slice through the child's oblique muscles and came dangerously close to cutting the intestine. And without proper medication to treat the wound it has also gotten pretty badly infected. Today, something caused one of the child's arteries to tear, and in layman's terms, that is BAD." While Sans realized that this was incredibly rude, he also got that the doc's dumbing down of everything really helped the info to sink in. The doctor sighed and pulled down his face mask.

"We have stopped the bleeding. For now. I intend for the child to have surgery on the wound after the child's fever breaks. We are having them transferred to the intensive care unit. Considering you are their... family, the room is available for 24 hours as long as you are quiet and allow the patient to rest. There is only enough room for two of you at a time, so make your own arrangements. If the child is to survive the night, they are not to move or risk opening their stitches and bleeding all over again."

The doctor turned to leave the room, and just as he put his glove to the door, his shoulders slumped.  
"I suggest... those with the stronger stomach stay with the child. It will not be an easy sight for any of you."

With this, he left the room and the nurse standing at the door followed.

"*undyne and i'll sit up with the kid on the first shift. y'all get your sleep. 'gonna need it."

Toriel began to protest, but the look in Sans' sockets told her it was useless.

"s'not a big deal, tori." She shrugged out of the room. Papyrus stalled for a moment, gripping his humerus tight, before quickly exiting the room. Sans suspected he had tears in his sockets. Alphys hugged her girlfriend and kissed her cheek. Undyne didn't seem to register Alphys was even there. Alphys left, her tail dragging behind her in defeat. This left Sans and Undyne alone in the consultation room. She sat, arms crossed and nails digging into her scales, her eyes locked on the wall away furthest from the door.

"*come on, undyne, the kid needs ya right now. 'needs us." The warrior only tensed more, locked in place.

Sans reached over, phalanges hardly glancing the woman's scales before being shoved across the room. Sans hit the wall- hard- but not hard enough to take away his one HP. He looked up to see Undyne, and he was surprised. Tears poured from her eyes, her body limp and trembling. She looked like she was barely holding up. Sans in all the timelines, in all his different lives, had never seen the determined warrior lose her composure... not like this.

"Don't... don't fucking touch me. You know as well as I do this is all my fucking fault. I mean, for fucks sake I tried to kill the kid! I wanted to take their soul and leave the Underground. They let us out and now they are going to die and it is all my FUCKING FAULT." Her voice was raw, her sharp teeth digging into her lip. Sans picked himself up off the floor and brushed dust off his tee-shirt. He frowned, and looked up at Undyne. His sockets had gone dark.

"*shut the fuck up. tori, pap, me, everyone is just as guilty as you. hell, the kid is just as guilty as you are. but now isn't the time for your damned pity fest. you do what's best for the kid now... while ya still can." Sans left the room, not caring in the slightest if the fish followed. He saw no signs of everyone else, they must have left. He went to the front desk, asked where Frisk's room was, and was escorted by a weary nurse who kept looking over his shoulder to watch the skeleton. Sans could only find himself rolling the lights his sockets. He looked down the hospital corridor and found himself confused and conflicted by the number of humans lying in each of the little rooms.

Monsters rarely got sick, maybe the occasional cold due to overuse of magic. The only thing that affected a monsters health was when they Fall, and by that point they are at the end of their life. There was no "life-threatening injuries" or "disease", it was life or dust for monsters. Humans had so much to worry about. The nurse motioned to the last room at the end of the hall.

"If anything happens we'll either hear the monitor or you need to press the button on the side of the bed and call for a nurse. Don't hesitate either. Have a good night, sir." With that he turned on his heel and walked back the hall, leaving Sans alone outside Frisk's room. He twisted the door's handle and quietly opened the door, careful not to make any noise. The first thing he heard was the beeping, then recognized it as the steady, slow movement of the kid's heart. Then he saw the kid. They looked so small, covered in wires and tubes of all sizes and sorts. Sans took a seat on the kids right and took their small, cold little hand into his bony fingers. It was barely the same child he had seen a few hours before playing and laughing. Frisk was pale, which was odd for a human with dark, golden skin. The nurses had put a breathing mask over their face, and a towel on the kids head. They were sleeping, their breath shallow and raspy. Sans hid his face in his free hand, his eyes focusing on the bags hanging above dripping fluid down the tubes stuck into Frisk's arm.

"*look at ya, kiddo. ya look like mettaton with all that metal and wire stickin' out of ya. though, tibia honest kid, you've got too much software to make a good robot." Sans gave a half-assed chuckle.

"*you know, ya sure gave us a heart attack there, kiddo. we are supposed to be there for ya, you know? but you have to open up enough so that we can see... stuff like this..., and not let it get this bad." Sans pupils floated to where the kid's big gash was. It was so covered with gauze you couldn't tell where it was, but the small blots of blood gave Sans a pretty good idea. He let out a huge sigh and lifted his head to stare at the single florescent light illuminating the bed in a gloomy, damning light. Sans began removing his hand from the kid's, but he suddenly felt a tug at the other end. He looked down at the hand, the weak grasp holding his fingers in place

"Sans... I'm... I'm sorry." Frisk's voice was weak. They sounded so very tired.

"*shush, kiddo... you need to sleep. can't be havin' your mom taken pot shots at me 'cause i kept you up."

"No... I can't sleep, Sans... it really hurts." They sounded like the were struggling for breath. Sweat beaded from their forehead. Their fever still had not gone down.

"I'm real..., really sorry... I didn't want anyone to feel bad. They didn't know... I didn't want anyone to know..." Tears began streaming down the kids face and their breathing became erratic.

"*kid... if we did that to you, how couldn't you say anything? it hurt right? when you hurt, you are supposed to tell someone."

Frisk looked away, their eyes becoming distant and a word Sans never thought about using to describe the kid- hopeless.

"... I'm used it. No one needed to know... can't complain... it only... makes him madder."

Sans stared at the kid, his sockets devoid of his pupils. He was frozen. Sans only sat and listened as the kid gasped for the breath to speak.

"... I don't want to hurt anymore... everything hurts..." Frisk's eyes went wide, their pupils shrinking with fear. Tears began to flow.

"Daddy... stop... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... stop... stop..." Their eyelids flickered closed.

"... I'm sorry..."

Their breathing returned to being shallow but controlled. A deep breath was released from the figure standing on the other side of the kid. Undyne stood, back against the wall, and a chord squeezed tight in her hand.

"... after you left, and I came up here, some male human came up to me tellin' me he forgot to tell ya something. If the kid woke up, ya just have to take this little button and press it. 'knock the kid right out. And from the sounds of it, kid needed it." Undyne refused to look at him.

"Wouldn't be their BFF if I didn't look out for 'em, right?"

She tried giving a toothy grin to the skeleton, but he was numb to it. She sighed, and took a seat in the corner of the room, twisting the chair around so she sitting on it with the back of the chair facing front and her arms resting atop of it holding her head up. She now stared at Sans, who was stiff as a board.

"*... how much of that did you hear, undyne?"

"More than enough."

"*THEN WHY, YOU FISHY BITCH, DID YOU MAKE 'EM SAY IT." It wasn't a question, more like a statement. Sans turned to face the warrior, who had tensed for a fight when she saw Sans' left eye grow large, and beginning to flash between bright cyan and golden yellow.

"Control yourself, bonehead. You might wake the kid back up." The flashing immediately stopped, and he slumped back into his chair. Undyne stared into the skeleton, her bright yellow eyes flinching slightly when the skeleton moved to cover his face with his hand once again.

"Frisk may be a wimp who couldn't hurt a fly, but I guess that doesn't mean they aren't tough in other ways. Humans are weird as shit, nothing like the anime shows Alphys and I watch. When they get scared, they aren't afraid to hurt anyone in their way. Sometimes they hurt others just because it's fun. 'Happens a lot I guess. Its sick."

"*by that logic, then Frisk ain't human."

"Exactly, numbskull. Frisk isn't human or monster. Frisk is Frisk, and that means that if they were determined enough to get out of the underground and free us, then they are determined enough to make it through this. That's at least what I've got figured."

A chuckle escaped the skeleton, then it turned into a full blown fit of laughter. Undyne saw his usual shit-eating grin return, tears tinged blue with magic streaming down his face.

"*well, if you put it that way. i guess even a blind fish can find a worm every once in a while. Hey, you been herring about what that one fish said to the other? whale no krilling, no trout it was about somefin! No squiding ya!"

Undyne couldn't help but roll her eyes. That was much even for him, but she let it go. This one time only.

"If you are gonna do it, do it right, skele-punk. Do it with PASSION!" Undyne let out a shrill laugh.

"*tired of my fish-shticks, undyne?"

Both monsters laughed, but when Frisk began to stir, they abruptly stopped. For the next few hours, the two monsters made quiet, pleasant conversation, otherwise known as Sans making bad puns and Undyne giving fist-on-bone nuggies. Every hour on the hour, a nurse would come into the room and check on Frisk, but only once did the nurse say a thing to the monsters, and it was only to the effect of "stop touching that". The night turned to morning slowly, but when it did, a strange sensation of relief overcame the guardians. Sans was tired. Emotionally, physically; the skeleton was just done. Typically, he was the one that supported from the background, usually less work that way. Papyrus, Toriel, Undyne, or even Alphys spearheaded the whole active support roles. He looked at the clock and sighed. It was morning, sure, but that only meant more was to come. There was always more to come when it came to Frisk. Today would be a busy day. Sans could hear his brother being quieted down the hall, and Toriel's hushed words. At least something had returned to normal. Papyrus slammed open the door with his free hand, presents and balloons galore in his other. After being silently yelled at by Toriel and Alphys, the group crowded around Frisk's bed. Sans looked over and was relieved when he saw the kid still sound asleep. Behind him, he could hear Alphys shaking her girlfriend and Undyne awakening with a start.

"I did NOT fall asleep! I was just resting my eyes!" and then adding under her breath-

"I was just getting to the good part..." Alphys snorted a bit and hugged Undyne and whispered in her ear. The fish's blushing was almost audible. Sans looked up at Toriel when she began clearing her throat. She was gingerly smoothing Frisk's fine hair away from their face and turned from her child to face Sans.

"I... thank you, Sans. For being there for Frisk when the rest of us could not. I talked with Frisk's doctor's before coming in... since Frisk's fever seems to have broken, they have scheduled surgery for later today. They plan on... fixing... Frisk's ribs at the same time. It will take a long time for them to recover. In the meantime, we need to be there for Frisk. All of us, until Frisk no longer wishes us there." Toriel's face fell for a mere moment before giving Sans the strongest smile she could muster.

"Mom... Mommy..." Frisk coughed and lazily looked around the room. Toriel looked down at Frisk and took their small hand into her large furry hand. Her eyes studied the child, and while no longer gasping for air, the kid honestly looked pretty out of it.

"Yes, my child? Are you alright?" Frisk looked over at Sans and gave a weak grin.

"I feel... like I've been run over... so I guess I'm a bit... tired." Sans couldn't help but chuckle, and nor could everyone else. Papyrus groaned, stopping mid-tie as he strung balloons all over Frisk's room. It looked to Sans that his bro had stayed up all night drawing and writing encouraging messages on each and every balloon. Though out of the corner of his eye, Sans noted that one of the balloons had a drawing of Papyrus' face with a speech bubble above with "NYEH!" written within.

"YOU HAVE INFECTED THE HUMAN WITH YOUR BAD PUNS, BROTHER! WHEN WILL THE CYCLE END?!" Papyrus huffed and crossed his arms, letting the balloon he had been tying drift to the ceiling. That one had a picture of a plate of spaghetti drawn on it.

"*i don't know, bro. i thought it was wheel-y good." More groaning. Toriel was grinning but kept a watchful eye on Frisk. Even the kid was giggling, though theirs turned into a fit of coughing after a few moments. Sans could feel his own grin begin to slacken as the kid tried to find their breath.

"Mom, I'm okay... I'm really, really sorry I scared you... I'm sorry I scared everyone..." The kid's face looked crestfallen, and everyone felt their hearts dip into their stomachs.

"We are not mad at you, Frisk. However we cannot help but wonder why you did not tell any of us-" Toriel was interrupted when nurses entered the room, and shooed the monsters away from Frisk's bedside and they began to examine the kid. One nurse made it clear that the monster family needed to leave the room. They were all ushered out of the room, Papyrus still holding the many gifts he had brought for the kid. Sans noticed a security guard had made himself at home right outside of Frisk's door. Even brought with him a chair to sit. Sans and Undyne looked to Toriel for answers, but she shook her head and motioned that she would tell them later when there were less prying eyes and ears. And boy was there a lot of them. All the patients, their families, and nurses poked their heads out of rooms up and down the hall. Sans rolled his pupils and shook his head.

He was far too tired to deal with this crap.


	7. A Hint?

"Okay, Frisk, we need to look at your cut and make sure it's okay. It might pull a little, okay? If it hurts, just squeeze on my friend Nancy's hand." The nurse, who identified herself earlier as Stefanie, sat Frisk up slowly and took a pair of scissors and carefully began cutting the bandage. Frisk could feel the cold of the scissors slowly go down their side, and it sent chills up their spine.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Nancy asked softly. Frisk nodded, chewing on their bottom lip. Their chest burned though the medicine the nurses had given to Frisk earlier certainly helped. They still had a fever and their body ached, but they didn't dare complain. Stefanie peeled away the layers of the bandage and Frisk couldn't bring themselves to look. They knew that they had royally screwed up by not telling anyone, but at the time, they were at a loss for what to do. Frisk didn't want to hurt anyone, they didn't want to lose their new family so soon after something they had no control over. Monster's didn't have a mean bone in any of their bodies. They were literally made of love, compassion, and hope; traits Frisk had only found in one person in their life before they fell into the Underground.

Memories returned to their mind, the pain of Stefanie prodding at their wound reminded Frisk of the dull aches of of a time they wished dearly to forget. If this was their punishment or payment for living with the amazing monsters who had adopted them and cared for them without expecting a thing in return, then this pain was nothing. Anything was better than life before the Underground.

"Frisk, are you in pain? You are squeezing fairly tight." Nancy informed the child. Frisk opened their eyes- they hadn't known that they had closed them- and released their death grip on Nancy's hand. Frisk's hands were shaking, and they could feel a panic attack coming as their breathing tightened. Often Frisk was glad they were born with a resting neutral expression, one that prevented most of their pain and emotion from being shown. They nodded and tried to give a determined smile to the nurses. They seemed relieved.

"...You really are a determined child, Frisk. Now we need to clean your cut, and this is going to hurt. Do you want us to put you to sleep for this?" Frisk fiercely shook their head.

"No... I don't like sleeping. I'll be fine, ma'am." The nurses looked at one another instinctively but quickly turned their heads. Stefanie was biting her lip.

"Alright sweetie, this will be over before you know it! And soon you are going to have surgery to close it up, then it won't hurt as much anymore!" Stefanie tried reassuring Frisk as they grabbed a package and ripped it open, revealing a wet cloth that smelled really sharp and sweet. Though Stefanie didn't press down hard or tried to make it hurt, the nerves throughout Frisk's entire body screamed. They commanded Frisk to pull away from the cloth that stung at their wound, but Frisk only squeezed Nancy's hand harder and harder. They felt bad that they might hurt the nurse, but she only kept reassuring Frisk, saying "It's okay, just a few more seconds!" or "Squeeze as hard as you need, sweetie!"

When it was over Frisk relaxed their tense muscles and took a few breaths. They hadn't realized that they had stopped breathing mid-way through, but they had and now they were wheezing. Nancy rubbed Frisk's back carefully.

"In... out... In... out, you are doing good, Frisk. One last time, In... out." Nancy smiled, dramatizing breathing in and out until child and nurse's breathing had synchronized. Stefanie started re-wrapping the wound, not making the fabric constricting and overly tight but it certainly wasn't very comfortable. The two nurses slowly laid Frisk back down, and honestly, the kid was starting to feel absolutely exhausted. Nancy began rubbing Frisk's arm, then her face scrunched, and started rubbing harder and harder. She got up and pulled Stefanie aside, and they started to talk. They were too quiet for Frisk to hear.

"...Do you know where my mommy went?" Frisk's voice was soft. The nurses stopped abruptly and faced the child. They looked concerned. Frisk hated when people looked concerned, especially when it seemed it was on their behalf.

"... I'll go look for them, okay, sweetie? Nancy is going to stay here and talk with you while I go look." Stefanie left in a haste though she tried to look as calm as she could. Her eyes looked wide with alarm. Nancy sat back down at Frisk's side and took the child's hand between both of her own.

"Frisk, how old are you?" Frisk was confused. What brought this up?

"...9 years old, ma'am."

"Nancy is fine, sweetheart. Where are you from?"

"... New New Home, where I live with my new family! They told you that right?"

"Yes, they very much did! And they told me just how happy they were that you do! But what about before that? Before you lived with your new family?"

"... The Underground, but just for a few weeks."

"Frisk, you know what I mean." Nancy's voice was sweet and didn't seem angry, but it was firm with the child. Frisk sighed. This is what they had been trying to avoid. The monsters had occasionally tried to delve into Frisk's past, but Frisk never revealed much. Most of them got the message quickly that Frisk wasn't ready to talk about it. This nurse, however, wasn't going to take no as an answer.

"... The reservation. Up north. Both my parents were born and raised there. I lived in a trailer there with them all my life."

"The reservation? Frisk, what is your other name?" Nancy squeezed Frisk's hands between her own.

"...I don't wanna say it. I don't like it. I'm Frisk." Tighter she squeezed.

"Frisk, this is really, really important. I need you to tell me. I won't tell, I swear." Frisk gave her a look but didn't see a way out of this without telling.

"... Kimi. Kimi Davis. Momma said it was my great grandmother's name. Said it means 'secret'." Frisk fiddled with their fingers, trying to avoid thinking about that name. To the child, it looked like something clicked in the nurse's head, and recognition made her face fall.

"What is your mother's name, Frisk?"

"... My new mom is Toriel. But my other mom is-was-... Karen Davis. Her first last name was Carpenter before she married that man. I think Carpenter suited her better." The nurse looked really sad to Frisk, biting her lip and her brows furrowed with concern.

"Frisk... I don't know how to tell you this but….your mom...she... is-"

"Dead." Frisk interrupted, something they typically did not do. Frisk could feel tears form in their eyes but blinked them back.

"How do you know, sweetie?"

"I don't wanna talk about it!" Frisk's eyes squeezed shut, keeping tears from escaping. Their bones began to ache, the old pains returning the more they remembered.

"Frisk… I have a friend I want to talk to you, okay? She's really nice and will sneak you in some candy. I'm going to go get her, okay? Maybe you should take a nap."

The nurse left, the door clicking behind her. With the room empty, Frisk let the tears flow. The memories began to flood their mind and they began to shake, clutching the bed sheets tighter and tighter in their tiny hands.

They didn't want to sleep, but the medicine made them tired, and the unwillingly fell into sleep's grasp. Their dreams were infested with nightmares and, even worse, memories.


	8. Forgotten

Frisk awoke with a gasp. They had only barely restrained themself from screaming. They felt their forehead, and they were still warm and covered in sweat. They didn't know if they still had a fever, or if their dream had caused their heart to race. Nonetheless, they felt sticking and sweaty and Frisk was not happy. They looked around at their empty room.

Their friends were gone; the nurses nowhere to be seen. They still felt drowsy and a tad faint, but curiosity kept them from falling back asleep. There was yelling erupting from outside Frisk's window and muted voices coming from outside the door. They twisted their head to look at the window. Strange flashes of light caught their eye. As they turned, the weird tube going into their nose became twisted in Frisk's course brown hair, and loose strands fell over their face. Outside were people, lots of them, jumping over one another with cameras trying to get the slightest glimpse into the child's room. Frisk's heart began to race, and the machine to the child's side began to beep more quickly. Tears pricked Frisk's eyes. Even though their mind was groggy, thoughts incoherently strung together. Frisk squeezed their eyes shut and wished they could curl up into a ball. Maybe then the reporters would lose interest. But even then Frisk's wounds reminded them with a dull throb that they had to remain as still as they could. Frisk turned to face the door, hiding the cascading tears from the cameras and began to sob.

They hated crying. They hated the hollow feeling it left. They hated the memories of their mother wrapping their wounds and hugging them in tears, apologizing profusely like the hurt was her fault. Frisk hated when she did that. It wasn't her fault, it never was. She was the only good thing in Frisk's life, the light that saw Frisk through the beatings and hurt that man put them through. They hated seeing that light waver. Frisk tried to stop the memories, repress the pain and tears but it all just came out. They couldn't remember a time in their life without pain. Sometimes Frisk saw it coming, others it was like he snapped. If it weren't for their mom, Frisk would have run away from him and the reservation long ago. Mom couldn't walk, not well at least. She would never be able to make it. Every morning she swallowed pill after pill to keep down the pain her legs caused. Frisk remembered the times when Frisk's bones hurt from that man's blows, mom would cut those same pill tablets in half and give Frisk half in order to keep down the pain. The medicine left Frisk's mind cloudy, a lot like it was now, and Frisk hated not being able to think right. The memories made Frisk's heart hurt. The people outside knew, they had to.

No one had cared about Frisk before, not their friends, family, not their neighbors or the police. People went missing off of the reservation all the time, many just died, only to be found dead in a ditch nameless and alone. It wasn't often that police or anyone came to investigate. When they did, they were often only met with doors slammed in their face. They didn't even come when that man pulled Frisk from their only safe haven, their school, when the school nurse started asking too many questions about Frisk's wounds, lack of food and clean clothes.

But now their mom was dead, and he was gone, and Frisk was found, now everyone seemed to care. Bitterness filled Frisk's heart and they bit their lip. Frisk was alone in this world now. No mom to stand by their side anymore, no mom to care for when she could no longer move. No mom to hug and love on them when the pain became too much. No more apologies, no more beatings, no more. Frisk wanted her back. Even if it meant going through everything that man put them through, they would do it just to spend one more day with her.

The room door opened, and Nurse Nancy stormed through, drawing the windows shades and making a barrier of cloth between Frisk and the reporters. She gave a huff, and though Frisk was turned away and could not see, they could have sworn the nurse was swearing under her breath. Frisk heard the click of the nurses heels as she turned to face the child. She sighed, placing a reassuring hand on Frisk's forehead. She wiped the tears from their cheeks, cooing soft words of reasurement as the child's sobs stiffed. Nancy wanted to hug the child, squeezing the hurt from their wounded bones and wounds. She wanted them to be happy.

"Sweetie, shush... it's okay. Those big meanies outside can't do anything now." The child sniffled, but the look in their eyes was sad and distant, clouded by pain.

"Where is my family?" Frisk asked the nurse. They refused to make eye contact with her.

"They're busy right now, talking with some important people about you. But they told

me to tell you how much they love you and wanted me to give you this." She took out from beneath her arm a stuffed animal, a little Jack Skeleton plush only a smidgen bigger than her hand. She handed it to the wide-eyed child, who admired the skeleton's wide grin. It reminded them of a certain short and stout skeleton. The character was dressed like Santa, and it seemed their new mother had touched up his coat and hat. They hugged the creature to their chest so tight Frisk felt the stuffing go straight to its head. Nancy gave the child a soft smile.

"So the doc's got your surgery all planned out. We have to run some tests first, but everything will go by so fast you're hardly going to notice. Soon the doctor is gonna come in and talk to you, but for now, we need to give you a bath." Frisk made a face. They looked uncomfortable.

"Don't worry. I'll close my eyes when you need me to." Nancy covered her eyes with her hand, peeking between fingers as she searched for Frisk's head. She cautiously placed her hand on Frisk's head, tapped it again, then ruffled up their thick hair. Frisk giggled, sticking their tongue out at the nurse.

"Oh you cheeky little thing." She cupped Frisk's chubby little cheeks into her hands and squished their face. The tube going up their nose came out and the tube curved over their nose. Nancy released their face and tried to reinsert the tube while Frisk wiggled their nose and continued to giggle, making things difficult and having a heck of a time doing so. They snorted, then froze because they hated snorting.

"Ha!" Nancy exclaimed, pushing in the tube. Frisk pretended to pout, but when Nancy stuck her tongue out and made a face, and Frisk couldn't keep from breaking into another giggling fit. It seemed the reporters outside were all but forgotten. They laughed until their laughter turned to coughing again. Nancy patted their back until it stopped. With their rib so close to their lung, Nancy worried she might have made a mistake making them laugh so much. But the relief on Frisk's face told the experienced nurse it was worth it. Frisk hugged their doll again, calming their breathing.

"So how about that bath?"

Frisk sighed. Oh yeah, that.


	9. Clowning Around

"Are you certain Frisk?" Toriel asked their child. Her voice was quiet and a tad hoarse, like she had been yelling or crying. Perhaps both. It irked Frisk, but they weren't exactly in the mood nor situation to talk to their mother about it. To their mother's question, they nodded and crossed their arms across their chest, careful not to get the IV tube tangled up.

"I... don't mind. And I don't like medicine making me sleepy." They looked both nurse and mother in the eye, their stare filled with all the determination they could muster.

Both nurse and mother sighed. Tomorrow, it seemed, Frisk was going to lay down in a big machine for a few hours so that the doctors could look at their bones. While the laying down wasn't a huge deal- they had been doing a lot of it since they first got here- the hours on end part was going to be... annoying. However, it was better being awake for it then having to take medicine. Frisk hated that medicine.

"Alright Frisk, we understand. Your mother and I are going to go talk now, it's best if you get some rest. I heard a little birdie tell me the rest of your family is coming over later today!"

Toriel placed her paw on Frisks head and gave them a kiss to the forehead, and her paw lingered a moment too long before she left. Nurse Nancy followed her out, closing the door behind her. This left Frisk alone with their thoughts.

It had been almost a week since they had been admitted to this hospital, and though they couldn't remember much of their time there, all the times they were awake or could at least remember had been... tense, to say the least. Reporters had kept taking pictures of Frisk and yelling at them through their window until Nurse Nancy and Nurse Stefanie had moved Frisk into another room. After that, things became eerily quiet to the child. Their family disappeared for a couple of days, only Sans would suddenly pop in out of nowhere and stay with Frisk for an hour or two before disappearing again. Frisk had asked where everyone else had gone, asked if they were mad at them. Sans' sockets turned sad, his non-existent eyebrows furrowed. He took Frisk's hand and held it, rubbing his bony fingers across the top of Frisk's hand.

"*we aren't mad, kid. not at all. somethin' just came up. i swear, frisk, if we could all of us could, we'd be right here for ya. and we will be, soon. don't worry kid, i'm keepin my eye-socket out for ya." Sans gave Frisk the biggest grin he could, but the child recognized how forced it was. Over the course of the next two days when Sans would visit, Frisk didn't ask him any more questions. The skelebro seemed to appreciate that.

But now, Frisk's family was back. Undyne and Alphys came to see them, just a little after the conversation with Toriel and Nurse Nancy. Undyne looked extremely excited, toting a tough-looking, canvas messenger bag with flowers and sparkles glued all over the front. "BESTIE BAG" was sprawled in glitter glue over the front. Alphys rushed to Frisk's bed and asked them how they were doing, how the nurses were, if they were hurting still and if there was anything they needed. The two talked quickly as Undyne unpacked her "bestie bag". Undyne announced that she wanted to have "bestie" time with Frisk. According to the warrior, the two were gonna catch up, paint each others nails, and braid each others hair.

Undyne, thankfully, did most of the talking, telling Frisk how she and Alphys went out to a Japanese restaurant. Frisk sat as Undyne brushed out their hair and began braiding.

"It was awesome, kid! Alphys tried speakin' weeb when we ordered, but the waiter didn't understand 'er so I told 'im we wanted sushi and ramen. The look he gave me, HA!" Her face turned into an exaggerated caricature with mouth elongating into a grin. It changed sheepish when she was done laughing.

"Turned out sushi is made outta fish. I... didn't know that. Tasted awesome, though! Then Alphy dared me to eat that wad of green stuff that came with the grub." Alphys perked up from her video game when Undyne said this. She adjusted her glasses and gave her girlfriend a look.

"I-I didn't dare you! I told you it was re-really spicy and you t-took that as a ch-challenge!"

Undyne started laughing again, louder this time.

"Well, nonetheless I ate it and conquered it!"

Alphys muttered under her breath.

"...Y-you cried like a baby!"

"Did not! Didn't shed a single wimpy tear!"

Undyne was pulling Frisk's hair by now as she braided tighter and tighter and argued with her girlfriend. Frisk could not have been more grateful that their hair was short because it did not take long for Undyne to finish braiding and give her full attention to arguing. Frisk inspected the braid. It seemed... strong. They knew it was not coming out any time soon. They sat, enjoying the company of their friends and giggling as the argument became more and more childish as Alphys' argument became stronger and Undyne's becoming little more than a series of "uh-huhs" and "uh-uhs." By the end of the "fight", Frisk was reduced to a giggling mess. Even Alphys and Undyne were giggling at themselves. For the next hour or two, the two monsters and human child laughed and giggled, making small talk and occasionally watching the TV until it became too stupid or too sad, then they returned to talking.

"Frisk, are all humans like that? That one is yelling at the camera- oh look he spit on it! Yuck!"

Frisk recognized the man as some rich, privileged, jerk with weird fake hair who liked to yell a lot. They remembered their mom's mumbling under her breath whenever he came on the TV, and some of the mean things he would say about natives like them. He made Frisk angry, and the words he spat frustrated them. Now that Frisk was wiser to the world, they could see why their mom reacted the way they did.

Mom...

"...Where is mom?"

Alphys and Undyne stopped giggling, and both gave each other a nervous look. Frisk didn't understand what it was about monsters, but they sure did sweat a lot when they became nervous.

"Uh, your mom? Last we saw, she was talkin' with your doc. Said the rest of us couldn't sit in 'cause it's private." Frisk gave the two a confused look. Undyne and Alphys seemed to sweat more.

".. Rest of you? Is Papyrus and Sans here too?"

On cue, Papyrus entered, followed by Sans. Frisk and the girls' faces went deadpan. Papyrus, being the beautiful cinnimonroll he was, had heard that when humans kids became ill and were hospitalized, they were visited by clowns to make the children feel better. Frisk, honestly was so shocked, they couldn't even find themselves wondering where their skelebro had gotten the clown outfit on such short notice. And much like Papyrus, he didn't miss a detail. He wore an oversized red and white striped clown suit with a tutu strapped to his center. He had somehow found these massive clown shoes that made squeaky sounds with every step he took. He even managed to paint his face and find a clown nose that tied around the skull. The piece-DE-resistance, however, was the wig. It was easily twice the size of Papyrus' skull and was a rainbow of color. Frisk didn't know what to think. However what got Frisk to break into laughter was Sans.

He shrugged into the room, and it was easily apparent that Papyrus had gotten to him. He still wore his jacket, shorts, and pink slippers, but Papyrus painted his face. Sans had the classic sad clown makeup and a nose that also tied around his skull. It was obvious that Sans had tried to wipe off the paint, but Frisk also remembered that they had neglected to tell the brothers that acrylic paint stains. At the moment, however, Frisk couldn't think, breath, or speak they were laughing so hard. They began to cough, and while everyone started rubbing their back, they didn't stop laughing. Tears began strolling down their face, and still they didn't stop. It felt so good to laugh and laugh so hard. To be honest, Frisk could not remember the last time they laughed like this.

As the laughter dissolved into hiccups and coughing, everyone gave Frisk concerned looks, but when they looked up from beneath their hair wearing a grin that mimicked Sans', they became relieved.

"IT SEEMS THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SUCCEEDED IN MY TASK IN MAKING THE HUMAN LAUGH! I KNEW THE OTHER HUMANS DOWN THE HALL WERE ONLY SCREAMING WITH HAPPINESS!"

"*you're so cool, bro. those clowns don't have nothin' on ya. you even held the door open for me, that was a nice jester." If Frisk could laugh between their coughs they would have. Everyone else, however, groaned. The day went on, Sans somehow snuck in pizza (and spaghetti for Papyrus), and the troupe watched TV and talked. Frisk never asked about the previous few days, but their curiosity kept them tempted. At some point, Frisk nodded off into sleep, and everyone stayed with them as long as they could. They played rock paper scissors to see who would stay with them through the night, however, Toriel walked in and claimed that right before anyone else could. They all begrudgingly left, Papyrus' shoes squeaking all the way down the hall as he and the others made their way to their homes.


	10. Ache

_You laid in the abyss. There was no light, no sound, no anything... just you. This was a reoccurring dream. Your hand reached for your chest, and could feel the pull of your soul, it's yearning to be released. You obey, sitting up as you allow your soul to float free. Holding your hands out beneath your heart, you could feel pulses of DETERMINATION emanating from within the beating red soul. You felt a tinge of guilt. This power was not yours, but the first FALLEN child's, Chara. A memory surfaced, one you didn't entirely recall. You looked into the soul and saw the scene playback. It was you, falling, onto the bed of flowers._

 _The collision with the ground had caused you indescribable pain. You laid on your golden death bed, waiting for death when you could hazily see your soul float out of you. It was bright red, and you could feel your determination pulse through you, the power that had kept you alive and sane for so long, but now cracks had begun to spiderweb throughout your soul, and you could see your heart's beat begin to slow. If you could laugh, you would have, but the blood you kept coughing up stopped that in a hurry. Finally, you could rest. The hurt would stop. You had resigned yourself to this slow death, but it was as you shakily drew what you thought would be your final breaths that you could sense the light touch of a hand on your shoulder. You tried to turn to see what had grazed you, but black spots clouded your vision as you tried to move. You could make out a mess of light brown hair, rosy cheeks, colorful band aids adorning the cuts on their nose and chin, and big crimson eyes staring straight through you- except, you could only see one eye? You could only see half their face, the rest was covered in yellow said something, but you couldn't hear it. The buzzing in you ears was too loud. They smile, and it was the most sincere, sad smile you had seen in a long, long time. The scene goes dark._

 _You look away from your soul, and into the void. After that, you remember waking up, perfectly fine, with a thought; a goal; A directive. You remember determination running through your veins, you remember the drive to save the monsters, to save them all. Looking back, the feeling felt so foreign, it didn't seem like your idea, at least, not at first. After meeting Toriel, you began to empathize with the monster's situation. You wrapped your arms around yourself, hugging away the feelings- the pain you could feel in your bones even in this dream. You didn't want to think about this. You know the feeling of being trapped. You hated that feeling with every fiber of your being._

 _Then, you suddenly became very self-aware of your body outside of this void. You were in that big machine. You had been for hours. You had repressed your fear of being in such a small space so that you wouldn't have to take medicine to fall asleep. Your thoughts began to hasten, becoming more and more negative._ _Fear gripped your soul._ _Memories resurfaced,_ _and you could see scene after scene stream through your soul like a TV screen_ _. You screamed at_ _it_ _to stop, squeezing your hands into little fists until you could feel your nails biting into your skin. You couldn't_ _bear to take_ _your eyes away from your soul, however._ _You were frozen._ _The images passed so quickly but each one cut into_ _you_ _little by little_ _until you began to feel numb_ . Suddenly, your vision clouded. You felt lost, the determination in you long gone, instead replaced with _insecurity. Then you hear a buzzing in your ears, and as you sat in the void devoid of life, a voice came through the static._

 **FRISK.**

 _You didn't respond, too lost to the darkest reaches of your mind._ _You were so done. You wanted to leave_ _your mother_ _._ _Leave her to suffer by that man's hand._ _How_ _d_ _isgusting._ _You deserved to die._ _You wanted to kill him, make him suffer._ _You were a monster._

 **Why did you climb the** **Mountain, Frisk? Was it foolishness? Was it fate? Or was it... Because you...?**

 _You felt_ _a tug away from the darkness_ _, but still the pain of memories_ _p_ _ersisted._ _You wanted to die. Your bones ached and cracked._

 **But You REFUSED.**

 _Your soul felt heavy, like you were so close to remembering something important._

 **Despite Everything, I** **t's Still YOU**

 _Suddenly, the good memories came flooding back. You remembered your new family, your friends, your DETERMINATION._

You woke up, beads of sweat coating your face. You looked around. You were still in the MRI machine, and while your heart raced, you felt an eerie anxiety wash over you. You closed your eyes and focused. No one seems to have noticed you had woken up. You took a deep breath, held it, then released it. You felt restless, scared, and on the verge of tears. You also felt the need to pee.

* * *

"I'm going to be completely candid, Mrs. Toriel. I have been a radiologist for over 20 years. I have seen a lot of people and a lot of bones. It is rare I am surprised. Rarer still baffled. And to be frank, this is unprecedented. I cannot count the number of fractures your child has sustained, there are just so many. Too many of them have healed improperly. Without proper treatment, these bones, muscles and most important their nerves became irreparably damaged. " The doctor gestured toward the display next to her, an image of Frisk's skeleton taking up the screen. Anyone, human or monster, doctor or not, could tell there was a lot wrong with this skeleton. "I will approve the surgery to fix that gash on their side and the realignment of their ribs. However, this will only solve some of the most immediate concerns for Frisk's health. The extreme amount of damage and lack of proper treatment these injuries received... I honestly can't tell you what I am more surprised by; the fact that child is alive or that they are able to walk." Toriel didn't dare look at the doctor. Instead, she stared at the monitor, studying every detail of her child's skeleton.

"Their health will deteriorate gradually the older they become. The more they grow, the more stress it will put on their damaged nerves and bones. In a couple of years, they may only be able to walk with the use of crutches, then when they can no longer use their legs, they will only be able to move via wheelchair. They will need constant care, at home, here, and physical therapy. Not to mention the amount of mental trauma this all will have caused them..." The doctor cleared her throat, causing the boss monster to tear her eyes away from the screen and look at the doctor.

"It has been brought to my attention that you and your... family, have been talking with the police and FBI for the past few days. I have been required to share my findings with them." Toriel raised a weary eyebrow at the doctor. The doctor stuffed her fists into her lab coat. She chewed on her lip a tad before adding to what she had said. "I do not believe any of these injuries were caused at the time of them falling into the Underground, or by any of the inhabitants residing there at the time, Mrs. Toriel. Most of these are old and past the point of fixing without putting Frisk in danger of more serious complications." The doctor's eyebrows furrowed, and she looked frustrated.

"...Purely off the record. When they catch that... horrible man... that did this to your child... I hope he suffers. I hope he suffers till his last breath, but in the end, that won't even be a tenth of the pain Frisk has gone through." She sighed.

"This all sounds bleak and hopeless. However if my years of experience has taught me anything, it's to expect the worst and hope for the best, and I hope for the absolute best for Frisk."

Toriel gave the doctor a small smile. She extended her paw to the doctor, and the doctor did not hesitant to clasp the monster's hand between her own.

"There is always hope, Ma'am."

"That there is, Doctor. That there is."


	11. The Wolves Within

Of all the dreams you'd experienced, this was the most surreal. In this dream, you had footing and a path to follow. You felt as though your dream-self had substance, and for a moment or two, you wondered if you had already died during the surgery and had returned to the RESET screen. Silently you chastised yourself as you remembered to look around for the DIALOG. Finding there was none to be had, you decided to walk down the path, that though you could not see it, you felt compelled to follow the invisible path. To your sides, images faded and fresh began to appear. Some were long buried memories of when life was good, others reminded you why you forced yourself to forget in the first place. For some you stopped and watch the scene play out; when you and Sans had snuck into a movie that both of you had wanted to see but you were nowhere near old enough to see. The corners of you mouth curled into a smile as you recall Sans freaking out when the sex scenes began, trying to cover your eyes and his own. You had never seen him blush such a deep, bright blue before. While the movie was totally worth it, the intense lecture your mother gave both of you afterward left you an anxious mess. You tore your eyes away as another, much darker memory began to play.

With all the dreams lately digging up so many negative memories you had begun to learn how to callous yourself and avoid reopening old wounds- no pun intended. You continued down the path, finding the memories dimming, and the memories lining your path began to be replaced with fields of yellow flowers. As you walked on, occasionally you would catch- a figure? A child? A monster?- out of the corner of your eye, but whenever you would turn to look, there was nothing but flowers. It felt like you walked for hours, but you were not tired in the least. Something was telling you to come, and you were more than willing to oblige. Not like there was much else to do in the void.

Soon, the path you had followed split into two, and you stopped in your tracks. Down the path to your left, you saw three blurry figures. The one in the middle was much taller than the two beside it , and from this direction you could feel pain radiating from your bones, and an intense ringing filled your ears and the flower's glow burned your eyes causing you to squint. Your legs gave out from under you, and despite your best efforts, you could no longer stand. Tears swelled in your eyes, and you crawled to face the other path. The pain in your bones lessons greatly, but the dull ache is still there.

You looked down this path, and there a single figure stood, and though blurred you could make out a pair of eyes that you could faintly recognize though you felt a nagging feeling reminding you there was a reason you could not place these cold, coal-black eyes. With a great deal of exertion, you managed to stand, though your legs still shook with pain. However, something burned within your chest, a feeling not long ago that infected your every thought. Hate, it emanated from you. The anger made you want to scream and yo your nails into the pads of your hands. You wanted to hurt someone, you wanted someone else to hurt as badly as you. You wanted to kill HIM, you wanted to kill them ALL. You clawed at your head, digging your nails into your scalp. The intense emotion was maddening, and you felt your will begin to bend toward the insanity. You backed up, falling on your ass. You curled into a ball, fearful of both routes. To your left, your body had stopped responding, to your right your mind and SOUL felt as though it was being torn apart at the seams. You cried, clutching at your sleeves, the same sleeves of the same sweater you had worn during your journey through the UNDERGROUND, and you trembled from the weight of this decision.

You knew you had to take one path. After taking a few shaky breaths you looked before you. At the beginning of the road to your left now stood an echo flower, to your right a bloody knife. You were careful not to come too close to the entrance of either path, but you did come just close enough to grab the flower and the knife. You pulled them back toward you. First, you examined the knife, and from the cool metal, a familiar scene played. The night of your mother's murder. The screaming and yelling, a crash, and then silence. This was nothing new, but from this, the scene changed. Instead of cowering under your sheets as you had, in this version you had run out of your room to witness what happened. There your mother laid on the floor, blood seeping from her head into the dingy shag carpet of the trailer. Above her stood your father, holding a bloody and broken lamp. He was breathing hard, and shaking, but he was not scared. No, after just having had killed his wife, a woman who could hardly raise her arms to defend herself, this man was smiling, ear to ear. It was the first time they had ever seen that man's coal black eyes shine. He was laughing; he was happy and excited. He had just beaten her to death and he was fucking laughing and smiling. In a fit of rage, Frisk grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and as he basked in his infernal glory Frisk stabbed him in the back. He began fighting back, but Frisk kept stabbing and fighting their father till he fell, and even then as he bled out this did not satisfy the child, and they continued stabbing him until the man was long dead. The child in the memory turned and faced the real Frisk, however, this child was not Frisk, it was a grinning demon, covered in the blood of the man that had made them suffer.

The real Frisk threw the knife as far from them as they could. That hadn't been them- no, that was a true demon. That could never have happened, could it? Frisk had a suspension that it had never happened with this session, this version of them. Still, it scared the child just how close they had come to becoming... that... thing.

Now they turned to face the echo flower, desperate for comfort after witnessing that horror. This flower did not show them a memory or vision, but instead, it spoke. The voice was raspy and hoarse, but Frisk knew that long ago that same voice had been sweeter than sugar and more beautiful than any bird's song.

"Baby, you need to listen... to me... one last time. I'm sorry, my baby, I am so sorry. Everything you endured, everything HE did... it was all my fault. I was too much a coward to face him.. to save you. But you, oh baby, you are so much stronger than I ever was. You remember that story I told you, right? The story of the wolves?" You did. It was one of your favorite memories with your mother. "My mother would tell it to me every night, and I tried to do the same for you. Remember how it went? I told you that within every person resides two wolves, one who is inherently good and MERCIFUL, and another who is inherently evil and MERCILESS. Within you, these two wolves are constantly at war with one another. You would always pause and think when you heard this story, my dear baby, and ask which one would win, and always I would respond the same: it depends on which wolf you feed. Baby, you always became so sad hearing that. You would always mutter as I would leave that you didn't want even the evil wolf to starve. Once, and only once, did you ask about the wolves within your father. I told you that perhaps he had to learn how to feed the good wolf like you had, Frisk. I remember how the next day you handed that man an apple and told him to feed it to the good wolf inside him instead of the bad. I never saw you closer to death after..." The echo flower paused. "... that incident." muffled cries came through the flower but the voice tried holding back their tears and continued. "You, baby, chose to be MERCIFUL and KIND. You saved the lives of thousands, but... at a great loss to yourself. You could have fed the evil wolf and saved only yourself, but you gave and gave until there was nothing left to give. Now, Frisk comes my last story. The good wolf in you is not just for others, baby. It is in your nature to be so selfless you give yourself away until there is nothing left, and you care for strangers but never yourself. But now, baby, you have people around you who you don't need to take care of, but instead, will take care of you..."

"... far better than mommy ever could. You chose this path all those years ago when you chose the good wolf. It will not be an easy path, and the obstacles you will face are harder and larger than anyone should have to deal with. But you, my baby, have a family now that will stop at nothing to help you cut those obstacles down and together you will conquer them..." The flower paused again, drawing a final, shaky breath.

"No matter what, know that what happened to me was never, and in no possible way your fault, and there was nothing you could do. I did not have much longer anyway, baby. But don't you ever doubt how proud I am of you, Frisk, or how much I love you. This is not game over, Frisk! You are going to be alright. Stay determined, baby!" At the voice's final words, the echo flower dissolved into dust and was blown away by a nonexistent wind. In its place now stood the first FALLEN child Chara with hand extended. Behind them stood a smiling Asriel, peeking out behind Chara's shoulder pointing excitedly down the path. Frisk hadn't noticed before, but now they could see just how bright it looked. They took Chara's hand and the two siblings held you as you walked down the path and your pain and weakness became more and more severe. You didn't cry, though, the voice was right; you needed to stay strong, and you needed to stay DETERMINED. Briefly, you looked behind you at where you had sat, and there stood the ghost of a woman standing tall and strong, smiling through her tears. You smiled back, mouthing the words 'I love you' to the woman, then turned back to face the path ahead. You never looked back.


	12. An Easter Miracle?

(I also just wanted to thank everyone for your SUPER kind words! Are things cooling down or heating up? I wonder...

Thank you for reading! Don't hesitate to leave a review! It's the best part of my day reading what everyone has to say!)

"SANS, I DO NOT ENTIRELY UNDERSTAND THIS HUMAN TRADITION OF EASTER, BUT IS IT TRUE THAT THE EASTER BUNNY IS JUST SANTA IN DISGUISE? BECAUSE WHILE I HAVE PUZZLES FOR CAPTURING SANTA, I HAVE NO SUCH THING FOR BUNNIES. WOULD YOU THINK THEY ARE AS LURED TO MILK AND COOKIES AS SANTA, OR WOULD THEY PREFER CARROTS? THE RABBITS FRISK RAISES CERTAINLY ENJOY CARROTS." Papyrus was wondering aloud, his thoughts and words racing as quickly as he, as Papyrus drove Sans and himself to Toriel's home. The corners of Sans' grin raised ever so slightly, admiring his brother's unending enthusiasm.

"*i don't know, bro. might wanna ask the kid about that when we get there, cause you know, they are the egg-xpert on this kind of stuff." Papyrus groaned.

"THAT WAS HORRIBLE, EVEN FOR YOU." Sans seemed to take that as a challenge.

"*come on, bro! you're poachin' my best yolks! i think i'm outta practice and a bit scrambled, but i think i'll whisk it!"

Papyrus gave Sans a pleading look, but that only egged the skeleton on.

"*you're so hard-boiled, bro! tori would be crackin' up at these!"

Papyrus, with shoulders hunched and eyes glued to the road, ignored the puns with all his might.

"are you egg-noring me? don't you like my egg-cellent jokes?"

That was the final straw for the poor skele bro.

"OHLOOKSANSWEAREHERETHANKGOODNESS." Papyrus swerved into the Queen's driveway like a (desperate) madman, parking and exiting the vehicle before Sans had a chance to respond. Sans looked out the car window at the property, and despite the fact Toriel and Frisk had moved to the place a few years before, the sight never grew old.

In a very Tori-esque fashion, she had bought and renovated an old school house and fashioned it into a home for not just her and Frisk, but also everyone and anyone in the human and monster community who needed a safe place to stay. And while the house was the unofficial pillar of the community, it was the land that sold the place to Tori and Frisk.

The property came with a great deal of land, woods and fields, once cultivated for crops and timber but time had allowed nature to reclaim what it had lost. The overgrowth did not deter Toriel, as she could see the beautiful gem lying beneath the weeds. So over the past few years, with the help of Asgore and many hours of hard labor, the land became a yard, filled with flowers of every variety. The woods nearby became a popular nature walk, with flora and fauna many humans had never seen and monsters had never encountered. Silently, Sans swore that the sky here was bigger and more beautiful than it was anywhere else.

With a quiet sigh, he exited the car. The sounds of the small farm Frisk had made for themselves were faded but the sound of that damn rooster that loved pecking at Sans' head rang loud and clear. Sans couldn't for the life of him figure out why Frisk kept the mean thing around, but the kid never turned a blind eye to any hurting creature; monster, human, or otherwise. Even the damn rooster. Sans ran to catch up to his bro, and together they walked to the front door, weaving through the cars that had parked in the loose stone driveway. Papyrus knocked on the door five times, each rap louder than the last. He looked pleased with himself.

"*don't think omlettin' this go, bro." Sans snickered as Papyrus looked as though he was ready to pull his non-existent hair out. Before Papyrus could lecture his brother who had tears in his eyes from laughing, the door opened. Toriel stood before the brothers, her royal vestments (now used only for public appearances and ceremonies) were now replaced by a lilac turtleneck sweater and jeans.

"Ah! Just in time. Come in, come in, I would not want you boys to get chilled to the bone out there!" She restrained her giggle while Sans snorted and Papyrus rolled his sockets. The brothers entered the home to see that their friends were all gathered in the living room, talking and laughing over tea. Well, all but one. As Papyrus went to join, and immediately be harassed by Undyne, Sans looked to the old Queen with a quizzical expression.

"*where's the kid? they skippin' out on us?"

Toriel took her paw to her face and sighed, her smile diminishing a tad bit.

"They insisted on going outside for a bit to study. They are very worried about keeping their grades up, but lately, they have been working so hard as ambassador I think they feel they have let their academics slip." Toriel narrowed her eyes, looking away.

"As their teacher, I certainly know this is not the case. But it does not seem as though they believe me. They have become so mature, Sans, I can't seem to keep up with them anymore." She smiled, but her eyes seemed nostalgic. It was then she heard the oven timer buzzing.

"Oh, um, Sans, could you go get them for me? It is just in time for lunch and I imagine they would like some help getting back. They are under the old sycamore, as usual." Another buzzer went off. She thanked the skeleton quickly and returned to the kitchen before her meal could burn.

Sans rolled his pupils but his smile did not fall. He waved to the group of friends and said he'd be right back. He exited the house and took a big breath of fresh air. Even the air is better here. Taking the walk to the creek and the nearby pond where the giant sycamore stood tall and proud, Sans saw Frisk. They sat on a blanket, surrounded by towers of books and loose papers. Toriel was right while they had only just turned fourteen, they looked much older. Today they were wearing a black and white striped top and a pair of baggy overalls with the blue jacket with the delta rune on the back that Sans had bought them a year prior. Their hairstyle hadn't changed much since they were a kid, and today it was pulled back by a bandana, which meant they were in study mode, and study mode meant that they were so focused on studying that the skeleton was by law supposed to prank them, or, at least, scare the living daylights out of them. Sans took a shortcut so that he was right behind the kid, and tapped their shoulder. They jumped a little, startled out of their studying and turned to see what had tapped them, and when they saw nothing, turned back to face their work. However, instead of being faced with work, Frisk was confronted with a grinning skeleton. Instead of jumping like Sans had hoped, the kid just rolled their eyes a bit and have the skeleton a toothy grin, not unlike his own. They began signing.

'Heya Dunkle Sans! Watcha doing here so early? Uncle Pap want to get here first?'

"*nah kid, as per usual, dunkle sans doesn't leave the house until he's already late. your mom wanted me to come getcha for lunch."

Frisk looked confused, then looked down at their wrist searching for the time.

'oh! Sorry. Lost track of time. I had to get some reports done and research for class. Skele-ton to get done, no time to waste.'

*eh, you should just do what i do kid. nothin. though my bro got me good earlier. he wanted me to **clean** things, frisk. 'called it 'spring cleaning'. one of those messed up human tradition things, right?" Sans sounded revolted and made a disgusted face. Frisk snort and giggled.

'one of many.' They sighed and brushed off their lap,

'I guess we best get going? We don't want to miss today. Mom's cooking all her specialties!'

Their wheelchair loomed behind them. They tried pushing themself up into it but to no avail. As time went on, the harder these type of things were becoming for Frisk. They could now only walk with the assistance of crutches and leg braces, and even then that wore them out quickly. Today, Sans assumed, that even though the house was so close, Frisk hadn't wanted to risk crutches. Another try, and this time, Frisk made it into the chair.

"*want me to get this stuff or are we gonna leave it out here?" Blue magic began to flicker over Sans' hand when Frisk frantically signed.

'Wait! Let me try! I've been practicing a lot lately!' Sans stopped, and Frisk raised their hand. Their face was tight with concentration but slowly their hand became engulfed in blue magic. Their books and papers began lifting into the air, floating in place as Frisk began moving and organizing papers and books by matter and subject. The dunkle was proud and frankly astonished by how well they used magic despite only have been taught how to use it in the past year. Sans began pushing their chair down the hill as Frisk kept at it. He noticed the small beads of sweat gathering at their brow but they looked so proud of themself, and boy was he proud for 'em.

Frisk floated the work into their bedroom through their window before they and Sans entered the house. Immediately the two were ambushed by their friends, Sans was shooed away by Undyne and Papyrus. The two took Frisk's chair and sped them into the living room. Sans quietly stood in the doorway watching.

"ALRIGHTCHA LITTLE NERD! Paps been tellin' me you've MASTERED blue magic! I'm callin' him out. There's no way, right?" She gave the kid a smug, toothy grin.

"AHA! THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE WRONG, UNDYNE! FRISK HAS FAR SURPASSED EVEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SKILLS FROM BACK WHEN I WAS THEIR AGE. HOWEVER, THERE IS NO BETTER PROOF THEN A DEMONSTRATION. WHAT SAY YOU, FRISK?"

Frisk just shrugged, but a bit of a smile tug at the corners of their lips. They signed to their friends to follow them. They wheeled their chair into the dining room with their back to the kitchen. They closed their eyes and steadied their breath. Sans was intrigued- this was a lot of build up for a demonstration. But if Undyne was involved, she'd expect nothing less than the best.

Suddenly their eyes shot open, and their russet iris' were tinted and surrounded by alternating cyan and gold. Suddenly Toriel exclaimed in surprise from inside the kitchen, and when everyone turned to look, everyone except Frisk that is saw a scene straight out of Beauty and the Beast. Plateware danced and floated out the kitchen, setting itself with a great attention to detail- even taking the extra effort to fold the silverware within the napkins. Next came the food. Sans was impressed though the kid looked like they were becoming very tired very quickly. They carefully placed each dish at their designated place at the table. When they released the final plate of food Sans though it would be safe to approach the kid, but as he stepped forward, he felt his SOUL turn blue and his bones being lifted off the ground. He began panicking, clutching at his chest and trying to release the grip on his SOUL. Then he looked up at the kid, and at everyone else. Frisk had somehow managed to pick everyone in the house up by their soul, and Sans was not the only one freaking out. Undyne was trying to summon a spear but couldn't keep up her composure long enough to allow the weapon to take form. Alphys was stuttering like mad, and Papyrus was, for once, was at a loss for words. Even Mettaton, Blooky, Asgore, and Toriel were lifted up. Sans stared at the kid. He could barely hold up this many people and he was a hell of a lot older than Frisk and had a lot more practice. He could feel his SOUL being pulled, and he and everyone else was seated at the table. Frisk even put the napkins on everyone's laps (probably because they knew Sans would never do it himself). The room was dead silent, all eyes and sockets were on Frisk, who's back was still to the table. They wheeled themselves around and to their place at the table, ignoring their family's eyes and putting their own napkin on their lap. After a few moment's of uncomfortable silence, Frisk looked up from their napkin and signed to the rest of the table.

'I'm starving. Can we eat please?'

And for a fraction of a second, there was peace.


	13. Sleep is for the weak

(Smol message: I cannot believe how amazing you all are. Seriously. Thank you for your kind words- I can't tell you how much it means to me. Small shout out to the owner of the OC Hatty the Chicken: grabnok-destra (tumblr!) who is the REALLY awesome creator of the adorable little momma hen.

Also to Fenristhemoonraiser- I am so proud of you. You are strong and wonderful and amazing!

Take care of yourself, guys! Because here is someone that really, really cares. Thank you all!)

"Alright BESTIE, I'm takin' that as a declaration of WAR!" Undyne shouted. She was the loudest of the group, Papyrus included, as they all began questioning Frisk with varying degrees of interest and anger. Sans, in particular, was making it very clear he did not enjoy being picked up and was giving Frisk the no-lights-in-the-sockets glare that he knew they hated. Papyrus was both carefully chastising Frisk for using magic on everyone's soul without permission, but at the same time praising Frisk for their ability and mastery. Alphys was still very confused and stuttering, unable to comprehend what just happened.

"You, me, outside. NOW." Undyne commanded, jabbing her finger into and through the dining table. She was now standing, hand on her hip and a deadly glint in her eyes. Thankfully, Undyne knew better than to start the fight right then and there. Toriel would have torched the fish if she had destroyed the living room. Again. For the 12th time.

Toriel, as if on cue, cleared her throat and all eyes were focused on her. The shouting stopped. From the head of the table, she looked around at the faces in the room, pausing at Sans and gave him a particular look that forced him to put back on his eye lights so he could roll his eyes and give a disgruntled huff. Toriel then focused on Undyne and gave a disapproving glare, glancing over the food she had prepared to get the message across.

"ERR, perhaps later. BUT IT'S A CHALLENGE NONETHELESS, RUNT! A CHALLENGE I INTEND TO KICK YOUR A-S-S AT! FWUHUHUHU!" Frisk couldn't contain the giggle that erupted in their chest. In fact, it seemed no one could. Undyne didn't bow her head to many, but Toriel was one of few that had figured out how to win the warrior's respect and fear.

'I'm sorry, everyone. I was so excited about showing everyone I wasn't thinking.' Frisk's smile fell a bit.

"Eh, no harm was done, brat! Seriously, though, we need to go outside and spar for old times sake! Don't want ya getting' soft on us!"

The corners of Frisk's weak grin twitched.

'Couple of obstacles kind of preventing that Undyne.' They gestured to their chair and gave a short (forced) laugh.

"Use your magic, kid! Who needs legs then?" It didn't occur to Undyne what she just said until the tension in the room became palpable. Even disgruntled Sans was giving Undyne a very aggravated look. He glanced at Frisk, who remained stone-faced. They had gotten a lot better at not letting anything that got to them show. That annoyed Sans and their mother to no end.

Just when Toriel was about to explain to Undyne why that was in no way okay, she saw Frisk in the corner of her eye shaking their head and signing the word no over and over again.

'It's alright! It's a good suggestion! While it's helpful for picking stuff up and taking care of the animals, it's really hard using magic on anything bigger than my backpack for long periods of time. Oh! Speaking of, Hatty had chicks again! She snuck in again last night and sat square on my face while I was sleeping. She scared me to death! But it seems like she just wanted to show off her babies. There were five this time, and two of them were yellow, two others had black spots, and one was just all black! I haven't named any of them yet, so I'll go get them so we can name them together!' After finishing their final sign, they escaped the dining room before they could hear their mother's complaints about bringing animals into the dining room. She sighed.

"Three more ambassadors heard about Frisk's animal sanctuary and they all brought them animals from their home countries. The Peruvian Ambassador brought them an alpaca that had been born without mobility in its hind legs. The Italian ambassador brought them a nightingale that was blind. Then the French ambassador brought them a turtle." Toriel put her face in hands.

"I can no longer enter Frisk's room without finding myself in the middle of a literal zoo. They do such a great job of taking care of their animals I can not tell them no, but now on top of paying for all of their animals they are asking if they can use some of their earnings to build a greenhouse that will double as an aviary. They are such a good child but whenever they pick up a hobby it is never for themselves!" Toriel shook her head in defeat.

"When they wished to learn how to knit and how to crochet, they hardly slept for weeks in order to make enough sweaters and socks for all of the children in a village they were visiting. Or when then wanted to learn how to make pottery, they did not rest one bit until they had made several hundred bowls to donate to soup kitchens around the country. You recall, Papyrus, you were cleaning clay off of your bones for weeks! And now, they wish to learn how to make shoes! SHOES! My child does not know the definition of the term rest. Or sleep." She sighed, looking up from her hands.

"They ever sleep! I occasionally hear them awake at all hours of the night but I know it is much more frequent that they are awake and I simply cannot hear them. And they keep hiding those infernal energy drinks in their room! I have expressed to all of you my hatred of those things. My child does not get enough rest in the first place and if I find that one of you is supplying my child with those things I will ensure that you will know no peace." She eyed both Sans and Undyne, who both exchanged looks of unadulterated fear.

"I COMPLETELY AGREE, YOUR MAJESTY! THE YOUNG HUMAN IS UNDER FAR TOO MUCH STRESS! PERHAPS WE SHOULD ARRANGE AN OUTING TO TAKE THEM TO THE AQUARIUM! I FOLLOW THEM ON THEIR PRIVATE BLOG! AS OF RECENT, THEY HAVE BEGUN REBLOGGING MANY POSTS THAT REGARD AQUARIUMS AND THE CREATURES THAT RESIDE WITHIN. IN THE COMMENTS AND TAGS, THEY HAVE EXPRESSED INTEREST, SAYING 'this place is so cool!' OR 'that sponge looks like a moldsmol. get it. mold-smol. sans would like that one i think. he and maybe alphys. DISCLAIMER: i am neither creative nor am i punny.' I DID NOT QUITE GET THE LAST ONE AND SO I ASKED MY OWN FOLLOWERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AS I AM IN FACT QUITE POPULAR THERE. IMMEDIATELY AFTER POSTING THAT I HEARD SANS FALL OFF OF THE COUCH DOWNSTAIRS LAUGHING VERY HARD AND WHEN I CAME TO ASK WHY HE WAS LAUGHING HE WOULD NOT TELL ME WHY." By the time Papyrus had finished, Sans looked very near falling off of his chair once again. Undyne was moaning, Alphys was quietly giggling and Toriel looked as though she, like Sans, was going to fall down laughing. Papyrus' sockets narrowed.

"WHY IS EVERYONE LAUGHING AND GROANING. I HAVE SAID NOTHING FUNNY? WAIT. WAS THAT A PUN. WAS I JUST RETELLING A HORRIBLE PUN." Sans at this point was on the floor laughing so hard cyan hued tears were falling from his sockets. Toriel looked like she was about to pop as she could no longer contain her laughter. Papyrus groaned.

As his laughing died down, Sans, slowly stood up and took the back of his chair between his phalanges.

"*kid's been gone for awhile. 'might need help herdin' up all of the chicks. fish-sticks, wanna come with to help the kid out? make a game outta it?" At the thought of a competition, never-minding the fish stick comment, Undyne immediately joined the skeleton as they left to table to find Frisk.

The house was pretty large, and Frisk had chosen a room at the other end of the house. As the two walked through the hall they found picture upon picture of the family in all sorts of situations. Many were from around the time of Frisk's surgery because Toriel had wanted Frisk to have had good memories to look back on during that time. Others were from all sorts of meetings that Frisk went to with their ambassadorship that lead them all around the world. But the ones Sans knew the pictures everyone treasured most was the ones where everyone had come together. Those ones were becoming harder and harder to take. With Sans' many jobs, janitor, trombonist in a blues band, and comedian to name a few, Papyrus' teaching motivational fitness and taking late night cooking classes so he could become the best chef in the world, it was hard for the brothers to hang out with Frisk at all. Especially with Frisk's own school work schedule and their ambassador work taking them all over the world. The kid never seemed to have time to actually be a kid, so this Easter was a special easter-egg for the brothers. _Hehe easter-egg, i'll have to write that one down,_ Sans thought as he chuckled to himself.

"So what's the REAL reason you wanted me to come with you, numbskull? Not like you wanted the company." Undyne broke the silence as they walked.

"*so you could apologize to the kid. you should know how sensitive they are about their legs."

Undyne scoffed.

"They sure as hell did act all that sensitive! But I guess you're right." She looked up ahead to Frisk's door. It was closed.

"Why's their door closed? And they sure as hell are taking their good sweet time rounding up those chicks. I wanna name mine Ryuko. BECAUSE IT IS GOING TO BE A BADASS ANIME WARRIOR WITH A GIANT PAIR OF SCISSORS AND A TALKING SAILOR UNIFORM! AND I'M GONNA BE THE ONE TO CATCH 'EM!" She stormed into Frisk's room, expecting to see a few animals running around. Instead, she and Sans saw animal cages lined the walls, one wall dedicated to reptiles, another to birds, and another for small mammals. A dog and her litter of puppies laid in a very large corner of the room off by themselves, and chickens and cats traversed the room freely. Next to the neatly made bed that looked as though it had not been used for quite some time sat Frisk in their wheelchair, their back to the door. They looked as though they were one the phone.

Before Undyne was able to say anything, she was immediately attacked by the (evil) rooster Bob (Asgore named that rooster in particular). The mean thing had flown up to start pecking at Undyne's face, and rest upon her bright red ponytail as if to express its victory. And no matter how much Undyne tried to pull him off, the evil rooster refused. It seemed as though it was as determined as it's owner in that respect. Speaking off, Sans had sidestepped around Undyne as she fought the rooster and approached the kid.

"... Sir, I beg of you to reconsider. This is a very important subject that could affect the lives of billions of people... No sir, it is not necessary. Monsters are made of love, kindness, and hope. They have no malice and this 'countermeasure' is in no way necessary. No, I am not a traitor to humankind, how could you insinuate this? No sir, I did not abandon my human family... Sir this is my own private business and I request that you stop this line of inquiry as it is not at all professional and is borderline a hate crime, ambassador... Sir- Sir! Please, this conversation is in regard to the monster counter action plan you proposed to the UN last month, not my own personal life!... Sir, I am the AMBASSADOR of all of monster kind! I will remind you that this phone call is monitored and I will report you... Fine, sir. Have it your way. I will see you in Munich for further discussion on this topic. I hope then you will act like a professional instead of an inane bigot during the conference if by that time the investigation I will have filled against has not forced you to lose your position... '..you gutless….' oh sir, please continue to dig your metaphorical grave. Yes, yes, goodbye to you also. And have a wonderful Easter."

Frisk tossed their phone onto their bed, laid back into their chair and sighed. They began mumbling under their breath.

"*kid, tibia honest, i had some kind of hand pun for ya but i can't put my finger on it. especially after that conversation. i forget that not all humans are like you sometimes. that guy didn't have the sk-gull to pick on ya face to face. but i've gotta ask, what's that all about?"

Frisk didn't look up at their dunkle, just stared absentmindedly at the wall.

"*hello? earth to frisk." Sans snapped his phalanges in front of Frisk's face. They still did not look up at him.

"*kid, answer me." Sans moved in front of them, staring them right square in the eyes and placing his hands on their shoulder. He analyzed their expression but as per-fucking-usual they were not emoting a single damn emotion. They shook their head and carefully brushed Sans' hand's off their shoulder and wheeled over to one of the snake's cages. Under the cage was a cabinet. Frisk pulled back the doors of the cabinet and reached inside, pulling out one of the very potent energy drinks Sans had bought them. They opened it up and downed it in a few sips. They set the now empty can in their lap and produced and exacerbated sigh. Sans looked at the kid in confusion until he noticed from the recycling there were many other cans just like the one Frisk had just finished. Frisk took out the garbage and recycling once every three days in order to prevent their animals from getting into anything. That was a lot of energy drinks for three days.

"*kid, when was the last time you slept." Sans didn't ask a question as much as an open-ended statement.

"... Yesterday." They responded slowly.

"*for longer than an hour or two."

"... Four days ago."

Both Sans and Undyne who had lost to the rooster gave an exasperated moan.

"THAT AIN'T HEALTHY, YOU BRAT! I BOUGHT YOU THOSE DRINKS SO YOU COULD STAY PUMPED AND READY FOR ACTION! Not to run ya ragged like this!"

"... stressed. Can't sleep, okay?" Frisk voice was quiet but the agitation in their shoulders was prevalent.

"*not an excuse. you know you can tell us what's goin' on, right? that's what family is for." Frisk tensed. Sans knew there was more to it than just stress. Frisk had admitted to having nightmares, ones that often made them afraid to sleep. Sans knew they picked this room because it was so far from their mother's, and when they were awake it was harder for her to know. The animals constantly making noise also covered up when they woke up screaming or had panic attacks they never admitted to having. Everyone knew that these episodes happened a lot more frequently than Frisk would ever admit to.

Often they never specified what caused the nightmares or what was in them, but by their reactions after the fact, Sans guessed. When It was about the Underground from this run, Frisk tended to avoid Undyne and Asgore and flinched whenever they came near. When it was about other neutral runs where they didn't know how to spare certain member of their family like Toriel or Undyne, they became very apologetic, trying their hardest to be "good" and "strong". When it was about their first family and their dad, they avoided everyone and became very quiet. This was very common for Frisk. Their tensing at the word family told Sans all he needed to know.

"*you know frisk, masks have no face value. especially yours. you gotta tell us what's goin on. you don't have to carry it all yourself." Even with their back turned to Undyne and Sans, they looked so fragile that it looked like they would break under all the stress any moment. For a long time after the surgery, when Frisk showed this weakness, everyone gave them the space they wanted. That was a mistake, in Sans' mind. That just forced the kid to learn how to make a brave face. Now, Sans wasn't afraid about getting in their face to get to the heart of the issue.

"...I'm fine."

"NO YA AIN'T, PUNK! Don't make me sic pap on ya and force ya into motivational training with him and Alphy!"

"I'm fine. I don't want to talk about it and you don't want to hear it."

Before Sans could have some badly needed words with Frisk regarding the fact that they are indeed fourteen years old and the world didn't need to rest solely on their shoulders, the doorbell rang.

"I'llgetit." Frisk blurted out before zooming out their room door away from the impending bad time. Sans barely saw them grab their phone in their hurry.

"Oh no, you little brat! You are not getting away from this that easy!" Undyne yelled, and Sans noted that the rooster had nested in her hair and she had collected not just one but all of the baby chicks Frisk had signed about in her arms. Sans was going to name his Clucks or Chick-adee.

The two monster followed after Frisk, but they had gotten really good at speeding through the house in their chair much to their mother's disapproval. When they exited the hallway and into the living room and front door, the two were about to lay into Frisk when they saw them in a heated argument with several police officers at the front door. Frisk did not look pleased.

"...Yes I received your calls. However, as I have repeatedly stated, I do not wish to have any involvement in this."

"You do not have much of a choice. Now please come with us."

"Am I being placed under arrest? I do not believe I have committed any crime, and if not then I know my rights and I do not have to go with you."

The officers looked at one another.

"Howard, this home does not look fit for a child with such a severe disability. I think we should take them into protective custody. Maybe then we could have a good long chat about you and this monster family of yours, and whether or not it would be wise to keep you here, ambassador." The officer glared at Sans and Undyne, then the others who stood frozen from the dining room. Frisk tensed. They looked over their shoulder at Sans. They looked scared, but the look of complete and utter anger Sans was giving to the officers made Frisk relax ever so slightly.

"No need for that sir. I believe I have had a change of heart. Let's go have this discussion, shall we?"


	14. A Conversation

After they let Frisk get out of their chair and almost face plant into the back seat the officers took their chair. They didn't know where the officers had put it or if they had even brought it at all. Frisk hoped they had chairs at the station- better yet the police broke down their chair and put it in the back. They sure did take a while to get into the car.

Overall, the ride to the police station was more than amusing. Frisk had never been held by the police, especially ones that used underhanded tactics against children to get what they wanted, in high esteem. For a long time they outright hated the police for allowing them to live in that man's home, but over time, Frisk grew out of that childish logic. They liked to think they did at least. However at this given moment they were having fun glaring at the officers up front and making them obviously uncomfortable.

They didn't say a word to Frisk the entire ride because in all technicality they weren't doing anything wrong. It was a long drive- longer than Frisk really expected. However, a longer drive just meant that Frisk could let their thoughts wander. Out of habit, they started biting at their nubby nails as they thought back. Undyne's comment earlier had gotten to them, it shouldn't have but it did. As everyone had started staring her down Frisk could feel tears prick at their eyes. It wasn't the fact walking was becoming too hard- even though Frisk hated to admit it, walking had hurt a while prior to seeing their current doctor (About half a year or so if Frisk had to guess). Because of the pain they had avoided walking, however according to their doctor that was only making it worse. It wasn't until the doctor realized that what happened those years prior, what their father did, had caused nerve damage and inflammation that had never really gone away.

Doctor after doctor had told them how lucky they had been to have had their legs for as long as they did. Frisk, despite their best efforts, didn't really get it and didn't really want to. They understood the law books they read a heck of a lot more than medical books or terms. It just gave them a headache. However, it wasn't just what Undyne said, no there was a lot of factors that Frisk didn't exactly let on.

Everyone had thought Frisk had just been offended about their legs but it was a little more complicated than that. It always was. Frisk bit down on their nail a little harder than they should have.

Some ambassador had introduced one of the most xenophobic pieces of legislation Frisk had seen against the monsters in a long time. In the 1000 or some odd pages of the horrible thing, this person had wanted to force the monsters to train seven humans in the ways of magic as a "precaution", so that if the monsters acted up the humans could just seal them underground again. However, like always, there was more. If the legislation did not pass, the same ambassador had a backup plan. In the backup plan, no human would be allowed to learn magic. Ever.

It scared Frisk just how many people were for either plan.

Nonetheless, Frisk had run away like a baby and internally they were kicking their own butt for doing so. Magic could help so many people; it could heal, it could make clean water and help grow food, it could help people who were disabled... it could help Frisk walk again. So Frisk did what they did best- they called the ambassador who threatened so many and try to convince him to not be a bigoted dumbass. They had thought a private conversation could help change the ambassador's mind. Sans and Undyne hadn't even walked in on the best part of THAT discussion.

Goodness Frisk was not looking forward to that conversation. They knew better than anyone that Sans could not let things like that go. Typically the small things he just brushed off, but when he suspected something big was going on behind the scenes, Sans became relentless. First, it would be not so subtle hints. Then he would leave socks with a string of sticky notes attached all over the house. If that passive aggression didn't work, he wasn't afraid to get in Frisk's face if he thought they were hiding something. Which they often were.

Nor did they want to think about the impending intervention regarding Frisk's lack of sleep and supplementing that with energy drinks and coffee. Which they wanted right now. Desperately. However, there was no amount of caffeine that would make this situation any more palatable. From the front of the cruiser, one of the officers spoke up.

"We're here."

The cruiser came to a stop. The officers exited the car and took a long moment before helping Frisk out of the car. They had brought their wheelchair (much to Frisk's relief), and Frisk maneuvered themselves into the chair. They were wheeled into the station. The officer pushing them did so quickly and almost dumped Frisk out of their chair multiple times. They were almost thankful, less exposure around the station meant less media attention so soon. The officer wheeled them into a room, and sat them at a table, and then left, closing the door behind him. From the cameras facing them from the corners of the room, Frisk could only guess this was an interrogation room. They grinned and cracked their knuckles. Compared to the last time they were taken into a room just like this, Frisk was prepared for anything they could throw at them. After a few minutes (or was it an hour? There were no clocks and Frisk could hear from their phone that someone was trying very hard to reach them. They didn't have it in them right now to talk, perhaps they could request a translator so they could sign instead of talk…. They doubted it.), a woman entered the room. It was Alleia, a member of the Monster Embassy's legal team.

'Alleia, why are you here?'

She nodded and signed back, recognizing this was one of Frisk's nonverbal times.

'You needed an adult to be with you. Your mom wanted to come, but I advised against it. Sorry, Frisk, but don't worry, I've got your back' She winked. Frisk really liked Alleia. She was one of the few who had asked Frisk to teach them how to sign, and often came by Frisk's office to see how they were doing. And despite her best efforts, Frisk knew that when they came into the office in the morning and found a random gift card perfectly placed right where they'd find it on their desk, they knew she'd given them the present.

'Has any of this leaked yet?'

'Mettaton is handling the media. Don't worry about it.' Alleia signed back. You loved how well those two got along. They were like the dynamic duo of the Legal and Public Relations department. That reminded them- Frisk needed to have ANOTHER meeting with their staff in order to deal with that ambassador from earlier and what he'd said. Frisk's head spun from the stress.

After Frisk and Alleia exchanged information via signing, which they both knew would annoy the ever-living crap out of whoever was watching from the cameras. It brought a smile to Frisk's face. The door opened and two detectives walked in. They sat across the table from Frisk and Allia. They were silent as they sat down a massive file in front of them.

"Ambassador, I appreciate you coming to talk with us. We thought it best to talk with you first before something leaks to the media." Frisk resisted the urge to roll their eyes. It was very, very hard to resist.

They sighed and one opened up the file. He began placing document after document and picture after picture in front of Frisk and their lawyer. Frisk immediately began reading over each document and analyzing every photo. They stopped abruptly when they came across one picture in particular. They felt like they were going to be sick. The image was of their mother- or at least her body. Frisk felt disturbed by the fact that she just looked like she was sleeping. Frisk cleared their throat. They didn't want to speak but they needed to convey their thoughts without an intermediary.

"...Thank you… for… this. But I have gone through far too many sleepless nights and therapy sessions for this. Now kindly get to the point." Frisk's throat felt tight.

"Alright, I will. Ambassador. Your biological father was recently arrested after he instigated a bar fight. After the arresting officers ran his name and found the warrants out for his arrest for his involvement in your biological mother's murder. You, ambassador, are the only witness to both your mother's death and your own abuse. There is plenty of evidence against him, from your own medical records to the forensic evidence he left…"

"Yes, detective thank you for the obvious. However, you know that the ambassador is in a delicate political position. A case like this could cause them a lot of issues in the future." Score one for Alleia.

The detective took in a deep breath.

"Yes. We understand this. However you will be involved in this case whether you like it or not- we believe it is in your best interest to testify. If it comes out that you are distancing yourself from this, it will make you appear weak. Help, and it will be the final nail in your father's coffin."

Frisk thought a moment. They looked to Alleia, who looked equally as conflicted. Frisk's shoulders sagged and the relaxed into the back of their chair.

"... I understand what you are saying, detective. It is obvious you have put quite a bit of thought into this. It's only fair that I get to do the same, don't you think? I have a lot more riding on my decisions than I think you may completely understand. I have to discuss this with my family and staff. Now I thank you for… this-" Frisk pushed the picture of their mother's corpse toward the detectives.

"But I have a lot to do and a lot more to think about. I believe that since I am not under arrest or protective custody, I am free to leave?" It wasn't a question as much as a signal to Alleira to help push Frisk out of the room.

"I thank you, gentlemen, for your time and honesty. I will be in touch within the week."

Alleia collected her things and Frisk began to wheel themselves out of the interrogation room.

Alleia and Frisk exited the building, a dead silence hanging between the two. When Frisk found their way down the wheelchair ramp, Alleia offered to drive Frisk home. They gladly accepted and carefully climbed into her car as Alleia put Frisk's chair in the backseat of the car. Frisk pulled out their phone. 89 texts and 37 missed calls. Both people from home and the embassy were freaking out. Thankfully nothing important had made it to the media yet, Mettaton had assured you in one of his texts. Nothing yet.

This was going to be a long night.


	15. Tedious

(Little tiny message: I am super sorry, but it's finals this week and next so I won't have a chance to write and post nearly as often as I am now... I will be able to post again hopefully by Friday of this week... I'm sorry, I really am. I know how much many of you look forward to this updating... but there isn't much I can do. Thank you for your patience and as always that you for reading!

ALSO IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A SAY AS TO WHERE THIS MAY OR MAY NOT GO NEXT I HAVE A POLL LINKED ON MY PROFILE! Please vote so I can see what everyone wants to see!)

It wasn't the most awkward ride Frisk had ever had. This was maybe a six or seven on a scale of uncomfortable. No, they'd experienced much more nerve-wracking car rides. Frisk recalled the ride back from the hospital after their surgery. That was perhaps an eight or nine. They were still pretty loopy from the meds much to their dismay, and their memories were spotty at best, but what they did remember made them frown whenever they thought back.

 _It had been weeks since Frisks surgery but the pain from their chest often forced the doctors to give them medicine. That medicine forced them asleep for long periods of time and distorted time, so days blended into weeks without Frisk really realizing. At one point their doctors had slowly begun to wean them off the strong medicine so they could go home, but whatever they had given them to replace it had made them loopy and incoherent._

 _Frisk remembered being wheeled out of the hospital, being carried into the car and laid down across the back seat with their head laying on Alphys' lap. They remember Papyrus going on and on with Undyne in the seats behind them talking about plans to make a welcome home dinner for them. Frisk heard from the driver's seat their mom quietly sighing and preparing herself for the nightmare that was going to take place in the kitchen. They smiled softly and wiggled until they were comfortable. The van was silent and tense until their family realized what Frisk was doing. Sans sat in the passenger seat. He was silent the whole ride home, keeping a careful watch on Frisk from the rear view mirror. After a while, either Papyrus or Undyne placed a blanket over them. For as drowsy and out of it as they were, sleep didn't come easily. their ribs ached, and they could feel the metal plate and screws through their skin that kept their broken ribs in place. They yawned, Alphys stiffened, and hesitated before softly running her claws through their hair. It was just what Frisk needed to fall into a restless sleep. Hazily they recalled half- waking up and muttering. Frisk fell back asleep soon after._

 _When Frisk woke up again, they were in their room, smothered in blankets and stuffed animals. Their Jack Skellington plush was neatly tucked underneath their arm. In a daze, Frisk looked up to see Sans. It was pitch black in the room, but they knew it was him from his eye lights and outline. He was leaning back in his chair, his arms slack at his sides, staring up at the ceiling._

 _Frisk felt exhausted despite the fact they'd seemingly slept for hours. They were doused in sweat and their chest and side ached from moving. They must've had a nightmare, but to this day, they could not recall what about. After a certain point, all their dreams, memories, and nightmares blended together. Before falling back to sleep, Frisk vaguely heard Sans mutter under his breath._

" _*you talk in your sleep, kid."_

"... risk..? Frisk? Earth to Frisk!" Alleia snapped her fingers in front of Frisk's face, dragging them out of their stupor.

"We need to talk about what went on back there, Frisk." The teenager tensed, but relaxed their features into their neutral expression. Frisk preferred keeping their feelings and crisis' internal. They didn't have to deal with people worrying that way.

"I know you don't talk about your life before the underground. I know your mother and father have forbid the entire embassy staff from even mentioning it. However, sweety, I think this is a good damn time to ask." Alleia gripped the wheel so tight her fingers turned pale.

"What happened?"

Frisk inhaled and slowly released their breath, buying time to articulate their thoughts. They knew it was right. They knew they had to. They knew they could no longer avoid it. However, that didn't mean they weren't going to try a little longer.

"... A lot, Alleia. Things happened, I worked through it."

Alleia glared at the road.

"That isn't good enough Frisk. I get it- but I've known you and your family for what, three? Four years? I've seen you fall asleep at your desk. I've heard you talk in your sleep. Even you can't keep a straight face during your nightmares. You cry, sweetheart. You cry mumbling your mother's name telling her just how sorry you are. So no, you haven't worked through it. You've forced yourself to suppress it and buried yourself in work so you didn't have to deal with it." Alleia's face fell. She looked like she was about to cry.

Frisk had never felt so trapped. They bit their lip and thought. There had to be a way out of this. Their family had made a silent rule never to push Frisk like this. Alleia had agreed to no such rule.

Their chest bubbled in anger- no, in frustration. They hated being driven into corners.

"... Everyone can be good. Everyone has that opportunity. Not everyone takes it, alright? In fact, there are some that just… hurt others because they can. Maybe they do it to hide their own hurt. Maybe they do it because they don't have enough control. Never have I though someone is bad because they are born bad. I have had ample opportunity to think like that I just never have. My human father never took that opportunity. He just- he hurt those around him, okay? It didn't matter who- stranger, family, friend- he hurt them all the same. Didn't matter if you could defend yourself either- just made you an easier target. In fact, it just made him want to hurt you more. Till one day he went too far. Maybe him taking me to Ebott was his way of having MERCY- maybe... it was his way of being good. I don't know and I don't really care."

That was a lie. They very much cared. When they found a lull in work it plagued their mind.

"He murdered my mother. He hurt me. This-" They gestured to their legs "THIS is my punishment for standing idle. Don't bother telling me it's not true. I've known this long enough I believe it with every fiber of my SOUL."

Frisk didn't bother looking over at Alleia. She wanted to know what Frisk thought and they were not going to say it without a fight.

"My mother was murdered- found, and now they have arrested my father for killing her. And- apparently- hurting me. It seems the statute of limitations isn't up on _**that**_ yet." Frisk crossed their arms, digging their nails into their skin. They stared out the window for the entirety of the ride home. They didn't care about the country scenery, they just didn't want to see the disappointment and pity in Alleia's eyes. Frisk turned their thoughts to work, releasing their grip on their arm and biting their fingernails. The meeting in Munich was next week. That wasn't near enough time to file a complaint about the bigot ambassador and anything to be done about it. However, as much as Frisk tried to think of plans and anticipate what would occur, their thoughts kept shifting to their insecurities. They hated themself. They hated how cold they sounded. They wished they could be honest, they wished they could just come out with the truth. However separating themself from the pain made life just barely tolerable.

Frisk yawned, covering their mouth with their hand out of habit. Their eyes darted to get a quick look at the clock. It was six pm, four hours since they'd left their house. The ride to the station had been almost 45 minutes- since the monsters and humans living in New New Home were not yet allowed to form a police department, the department the next town over was the only official police force available (the old Royal Guard kept the peace in the area so the actual police were rarely necessary). The ride back felt longer.

Alleia never said a word until she pulled into Frisk's driveway. From the cars still packed into the driveway they guessed all their family was still there. They noted that Asgore's van had been added to the group.

"Sweetheart….. Before you leave…. There is nothing I can say to change your mind. I know all too well how stubborn you are. Just…. Know that I'm here for you. Everyone is. Your family, your friends, the embassy... " Frisk still avoided her gaze. Alleia sighed and exited the car. Frisk's gaze fell to their lap. Minutes later Alleia carefully pulled open the passenger side door to avoid hitting Frisk's wheelchair. Frisk unbuckled and hopped into the chair and took the chair's wheels into their grasp and began wheeling themself toward their home.

"Frisk…" They paused but did not turn to face Alleia.

"I..." She stopped, thinking about her next words carefully.

"... Get some sleep, sweety. We've got a lot of work preparing for next week."

Frisk made a sad smile. They just continued wheeling themself toward the front door. They grabbed the door handle and pulled open the door.

They pretended not to hear Alleia close their car door and drive away. They pretended that they might be lucky and their family would hold off on confronting them until tomorrow. They pretended they could fart rainbows and fly to Mars. Pretending didn't change the irrefutable fact that when they looked inside they saw their mother standing in their way with her arms crossed and eyes ablaze. In the background, Frisk saw everyone else in the living room sitting. All eyes were on Frisk.

Frisk's head fell back and their hands covered their face. They tried to muffle the groan that escaped their lips. Frisk begrudgingly accepted they were not going to sleep anytime soon.

"My child, we are ALL going to have a nice. Long. CHAT."


	16. I'm sorry

((I am super duper sorry this is so late. I had to go home in a kind of emergency, and it kinda made writing this harder than usual. So two things:

Trigger warning for panic attacks. I apologize- I based the attack off of my own experiences, so it is kinda hard.

also shout-out to my BFF- E. He has helped me so much not just in this chapter but with so much. he is the best person and deserves more than just a mere shoutout. He's the reason I finished this chapter at all

THANK YOU GUYS AS ALWAYS! ALSO LOOK ON MY PROFILE AND VOTE ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE NEXT SEGMENT!))

"I'm sorry."

"FRISK CARPENTER DREMURR." Frisk flinched, and seeing this Toriel calmed ever so slightly. Sans couldn't determine if it was their mother's tone of voice or the mention of their mother's maiden name. Either way, it broke that neutral expression of theirs, and their anxiety was so easily apparent on their face. It didn't sit well with the monster family. Sans was laying down across the couch with Papyrus forced to sit in the small corner not hogged by Sans. Undyne and Alphys shared the loveseat, Alphys keeping her girlfriend from yelling and Undyne kept her jaw tight. Asgore sat on a fold out chair on the other side of the room from Toriel. Frisk had positioned themself at the entrance of the room in case they needed to escape quickly.

"My child, we are worried about you. We understood your need for privacy. We understood you telling Asgore and I the least you could about… a lot of things. We understood that. However, Frisk, when police officers come and whisk you away and we are told that we cannot come with you as it is 'not our place', well, there is only so much I can take." Frisk shrunk in on themself, hugging their arms around their waist. If they hadn't chewed their nails to the nub they would've had nail marks in their skin.

"m sorry….. I'm really sorry….. I thought it was a joke… I guess I just didn't want to believe it..." This brought looks of complete confusion to everyone in the room. Frisk didn't look up from the floor to see these looks, so silence hung in the room. At least until Alphys spoke up.

"...W-what do you m-mean, Frisk?"

Frisk shifted, the anxiety flowing from them like waves.

"My father…"

"Asgore?" Toriel looked at her former husband, who was staring at Frisk with a look of complete befuddlement and hurt. Toriel looked like she was about to throw a fireball at him before she saw Frisk vigorously shake their head. Their hair poofed up like a scared kitten.

"No…. my… other dad. Before the underground…. I…" Frisk took a deep breath. They rubbed the permanent scars through their clothes- the scars HE inflicted- with shaking fingers.

"He's alive…. Better yet, he got married again, but then soon after divorced again.." Frisk muttered under their breath a few things Toriel and the other pretended not to hear.

"...He got in a bar fight…. When he was arrested, they checked his fingerprints. He was wanted for my mom's murder and my…. " They didn't finish that thought.

"...The detectives called me… a month ago? I told them I'd get back to them but then never did…. I'm…. an idiot. A big, dumb idiot. I guess I thought that if I just didn't think about it or answer the detective's calls… it would just go away. I swear I never did that before, not with work...I swear…" They were shaking so hard their wheelchair creaked beneath them.

"I didn't do it when people called me a traitor, or a fucked up brat or…...when they threatened me or… or…." They choked on their words.

"I just couldn't take it. I thought I got over it. I thought that if I was strong enough and determined… It would just go away. It would….. Just all…. Go away." Tears began to spill but no one dared move.

"A couple days ago the detective left a voicemail telling me that if I didn't talk to him he was going to do something drastic…. I'm sorry… I ruined it…. I-i fucked it up….!." One of Frisk's hands moved to their head, and they started pulling their hair.

"Ihavetobestrong…. I have to be good. I have to…. I'm not weak… I'm not broken….!"

"*what are you talkin' about, kid? you aren't makin any sense… hey- frisk!" Sans got up from laying on the couch and went over and gripped Frisk's wrist to prevent them from pulling out anymore of their hair. Frisk looked Sans dead in the socket, their pupils small pinpoints and the whites of their eyes were becoming bloodshot. Sans had never seen Frisk look so scared. He let go of their wrist in surprise, and they tried moving as far away from Sans as they could in their chair.

Alphys recognized the panic setting in. She moved from her seat next to Undyne and slowly moved over to Frisk, careful to stay within sight.

"Frisk, is it okay if I touch you?"

Frisk gave a small, shaky nod. Alphys carefully rubbed their back. Frisk stopped breathing, gasping for air. They kept muttering the same thing under their breath.

"... hurts… it hurts…. It hurts….." They felt their head pound, and every scar and every ache.

Alphys looked over to Undyne for help. She, like the others, looked concerned, but rose from her seat and grabbed a knit blanket from next to the lovechair. Undyne, despite often being impulsive and hard-headed, knew what to do in situations like this. Part of being a royal guard meant she had to know how to handle all sort of scenarios, including panic attacks. She often had to coach Alphys through her attacks, so the two were especially skilled to handle this. Undyne was careful to cover Frisk, making sure not to scare them further. Frisk took the blanket into their hands and used it to cover their face. The two exchanged glances and nods.

"Frisk, do you want to go to your room?"

They gave a hesitant nod. They kept muttering apologies as they cried.

Undyne reached under the blanket and picked Frisk up. She was a little surprised by just how light they were. She kept them close to her chest and carried them to their room. Alphys followed pushing their empty chair. This left The other four member of the family alone wondering about what just happened.

"I….. I AM NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHAT JUST HAPPENED. BUT I DO BELIEVE THIS WAS A VERY BAD IDEA. PERHAPS OUR YOUNG HUMAN HAS TAKEN TOO MUCH ONTO THEIR PLATE AND I THINK WE HAVE ONLY ADDED TO IT"

Sans blinked a few times, coming to terms with what just happened, before responding.

"*yeah bro. That was kinda a forked up." Everyone in the room gave him a look.

"*what? too spoon?" This just earned him eye rolls.

"*but in all seriousness, paps is right. I think we may have royally screwed up." He cringed. That unintentional pun had earned him some very angry looks from the actual royals in the room. Maybe he was just too good at this. Sans cleared his nonexistent throat and sat back down, giving an apologetic look to Toriel.

"Sans is, however correct. I have given Frisk too much responsibility far too soon. I do not know what has caused them to keep so much from us, but it has happened and now we must figure this out." Previously silent Asgore spoke up from his corner. He sounded kingly and insightful, but a tad withdrawn.

"MAYBE WE SHOULD MAKE IT UP TO THEM! WE ALREADY TALKED ABOUT GOING TO TO THE AQUARIUM-I'LL TALK TO METTATON TO SEE IF HE AND BLOOKY CAN JOIN US! OH THIS WILL BE SO MUCH FUN!" Papyrus leapt from his seat and pulled out his phone and began dialing. He moved to another room as not to be a disturbance.

"*and then there were three…. so what now?"

"Well, Sans, that is entirely up to you. We need to talk with Frisk… we need them to be upfront and honest about their feelings. We cannot push them, I have learned that now. We need to let them come to us. However there are more pressing matters. My child does not trust us, and are hiding things from us. Asgore and I will do what we can from our end but what they said…. About being threatened? I can not just sit idle hearing that. And I know you cannot either. I think you can help." She paused and thought. " I am, despite Frisk and Alphys' best efforts, am technologically challenged. You, however, are very much not."

Sans squinted his sockets.

"*you want me to…what? hack their phone? email?" Sans crossed his arms.

"No, I think there is something Alphys could do to find a way to find the threats without too badly invading Frisk's privacy. However she would be unable to get their phone without them noticing. You would have no such problem I would guess." Sans shrugged.

"*whether or not i could or could not isn't the point. i couldn't do that to the kid." He shook his skull.

"Sans, you promised me a long time ago you would protect my child no matter what. I think now more than ever they need to be protected, and this is something only you can do." Sans rolled the lights in his sockets and sighed. Absentmindedly he began to pick at the white fur caught in his jacket. Having not seen the goat mother and child in weeks, he'd forgotten just how badly those two shed. He grasped a long dark brown strand of hair between his phalanges. Seeing Frisk's panic attack, and that look they gave him, made the thick-skulled skeleton mull over his thoughts and get over his hesitance.

"*fine. but i'll remind you this is the exact reason i hate making promises." He muttered.

"GREAT NEWS! IF OUR HUMAN WISHES IT SO, METTATON SAID HE CAN ARRANGE A BACKSTAGE TOUR OF THE AQUARIUM NEXT WEEKEND! THIS WILL BE SO MUCH FUN I CANNOT WAIT!"

"*yeah bro. so much fin i'm overwhalemend."

"*so much fun."


	17. Day Off

(Heya! Just wanted to say the poll will be closing as soon as I post the next chapter- most likely the day after tomorrow! As always, thank you for reading!)

Frisk's POV

I could feel it coming. I could feel the panic beginning to build, and everyone's words had begun to blur together. The shaking had begun when this intervention began, but only began to intensify as the panic truly began to set in. Everyone's eyes focused solely on me, their anger and exhaustion- the stress lines in mom's face long grown deep in worry just put me over the edge. The words just spilled out, gritting against my throat like sandpaper and god did they burn. Tears had begun to spill, my face felt funny and contorted, but at the time, I was so scared it hardly bothered me. No- it felt like that dream again. Like I was losing the only functioning part of me and felt like I was finally going insane.

Yeah, work brought pressure- a lot more than I let on at times- but the pressure I could handle. The threats? Those were harder to get over. Not just from the cops, those just added a different sort of pressure. Them forcing me to confront my father publically was putting salt in a very deep wound I liked to cover up. No- When people would send me pictures and videos of monsters being killed and their bodies turning to dust? When they'd tell me I was next? When I received death threats in the mail with pictures of me here at home? That crossed a lot of lines. Sure, I always reported that to the police and to my security detail, but I had never had the guts to tell everyone... They'd learn about the poor froggit from the police or news, they didn't need to know what I did. None of them did. But as the panic set in everything I bottled in just came out.

The words even as I said them didn't make sense but at the same time they made things perfectly clear. I am such a coward. I hid these moments for just this reason. San's face rang clear in my head through the pain of the headache setting it. I felt his cold dry bones on my wrist. He was squeezing tight, the circulation to my hand began to throb. It hurt. It reminded of when I would cower from my dad. All he had to do was move just a little too quickly, speak with the slightest inflection of emotion, and I would be on the ground in moments shaking so badly I could hear my teeth begin to chatter. Often I would be hidden in my room where he couldn't see my weakness. Other times mom would distract him. Sometimes it seemed if I didn't have the worst possible luck at all. When Sans grabbed my wrist it just….. Reminded me of him.

It had taken years since my surgery till Sans could even stand being near me. Longer till he could give me a hug. The way his face had distorted just made my heart and head hurt even more than it already did.

My skin had begun to crawl with my countless sins after seeing his expression. Every scar felt fresh, every tingle of a tortured nerve made me bite my tongue to contain the pain. I could hear my own words but it didn't feel like I was the one saying them. My head was splitting- I was sure of it. Alphys's words, though I am sure they were originally slow, they became a jumbled mess that sped through my aching head. It took me a moment to translate her request. I was hesitant, I felt like I want to run or fight, and I was afraid that someone else touch would just push me over the edge, but I agreed. I needed something to tether onto before I felt I truly lost it. A moment later I could feel a blanket being carefully draped over me. I felt compelled to ball the side of the blanket into my hand and cover my face. I hate crying and I hate even more letting people see me cry. I didn't realize how hot and sweaty I had become until I felt cool arms wrap around me. I felt gross and icky and so human I hated it. I felt like a child and it couldn't make me any more frustrated.

Even as Undyne carried me tight between her arms and kept my head firm against her chest I couldn't help but feel even worse. I wanted to pretend this never happened. The pain of my scars and the pain of my head and SOUL to just… stop. But it only kept getting worse.

Thankfully my bedroom door was still wide open (and none of the animals had escaped) or else I knew without a shadow of doubt Undyne would have kicked it open without a moment's hesitation. She carefully sat me on the edge of my bed

"Hey, punk-buddy. I need ya to do me a favor, okay?" Undyne sounds concerned. God Undyne felt concerned. I played with my quilt comforter. The loose threads distracted me. Breathing was still impossible and I felt my lungs gasp for air. I didn't care. I began swaying back and forth but my eyes were focused on those threats. Then Undyne surprised me.

She took me into a big hug. It surprised me into taking a deep breath.

"Kid, come on. You've got such a big heart, let us in. Take a breath. Shush…. Take a breath." I tried to take a shaky breath, but the intake of air only made me cry harder. Undyne awkwardly rubbed my back, I could feel the jerky movements of her arm. I felt safe, and suddenly, very tired. Just as I could feel my eyelids close as I leaned against Undyne's chest, Alphys came over and said something to Undyne I didn't quite catch. Undyne picked me up again, Alphys peeled back the blankets of my bed and carefully Undyne put me down on my pillow. After 96 hours without sleeping longer than a restless hour, my bed had never felt more comfortable. Alphys covered me with my covers and I felt the panic officially leave my frame. I didn't realize I was asleep until I was in the abyss, surrounded by the field of flowers.

This, at this point, has become a quiet thinking spot. When I was younger, this place scared me. Now, it was, immensely preferable to the nightmares. Between my fingers, I played with the stem of a buttercup flower, but I didn't pick it. I far preferred letting it grow and die on its own volition. Looking up into the dark, there wasn't much to see. The inky dark hid memories like stars- far enough to be seen for what they were, but not close enough to recall the moment. I looked back down at the flower I had been playing with, but instead of bright yellow petals, there was an image playing back. I hesitated, but I knew I had to watch.

'It was the day after your surgery. Night had passed and morning had come and go and I had only guessed it was mid-afternoon. Sans was gone from my bedside and I was alone again. I squeezed the sheets. I didn't want to get up, but my stomach vehemently disagreed. I wobbled weakly to the door. I felt so weak and my head throbbed with immense didn't help was the pain that blossomed in my chest. Breathing was easier now than it had been after the surgery but it still hurt so I didn't complain much.

I opened the door and used my hand to hold myself steady against the wall. Once I balanced out on the wall I finally began the agonizing trip to the kitchen. There were voices coming from the kitchen. I walked further with my hand releasing the wall in favor for a guest room door to keep moving forward. I accidently tapped the door lightly as I walked. Suddenly, the door swung open and I lost my balance and I fell to my knees. The fall only irked my ribs further.

"*what's goin' on? the kid okay?!" He searched above for whoever had woken him up (he still had drool going down his chin). He looked confused, then looked down at me. He backed up, and I was too distracted by my aching ribs to look at the shock and horror on his face. I saw him extend his hand but then he flinched and retracted his offer. He didn't look at me. One second he was there and then the next he was gone. A moment later I heard the crash of a dish and the low drawl of Sans' voice. Seconds later Toriel, Undyne, and Papyrus were running out of the kitchen and down the hall. In seconds, I was picked up and taken back to my room. Everyone surrounded my bed, mom checked my temperature, asking me questions I didn't pay attention to, and I quietly mentioned the fact I had gotten up because i was hungry. As if to add to my point my stomach rumbled. Papyrus and Undyne began fighting about what to cook for me. Mettaton was having quite the dramatic conversation with my mother regarding how absolutely quaint my room was…. And then suggesting slight improvements. Which consisted mostly of glitter and Mettaton merch.

I, however, let all that fade to the background. I was staring at the door frame and the small figure residing within. Sans wasn't looking at me, instead, he was glaring at the very few photos adorning the hallway. After a few moments, he left.'

I twisted around to avoid looking at that flower any longer. That was just the first of the few years he had avoided all contact with me. In fact, everyone did in their own way. Undyne hesitated to touch me, and tonight was the first time she'd hugged me in five years. Papyrus was a second mother- if I so much as scraped my knee I would be placed on bedrest and spaghetti for a week. Alphys acted like my own personal doctor rather than a member of my family. However that only made keeping the truth about the pains and numbness I felt easier to keep secret. Asgore was withdrawn. I knew he still loved me, and I loved more than anything helping him in his gardens and spending time with him, but I think he blamed himself for things he had never had control over.

Toriel was the best thing that ever happened to me. I knew it, I kept it as my personal mantra as I fall asleep at night. Sometimes, though, I couldn't help but feel responsible for waking her in the middle of the night. For the nights, I heard her crying in the kitchen. For the moments, she stared just a little too long at me when i was a child- when I hid my hurt a hell of a lot better than I do now. I slapped my cheeks. No being a negative ninny. I Have to protect them right? That's what Asriel had asked me to do in his place. Chara, despite their silence, had given me the strong impression when they saved me in the underground that despite their hatred of humanity, they really did love their monster family with all their SOUL. I had to do everything to care of them right? Even if that meant distancing myself from them to prevent me from hurting them any more.

The black abyss shifted to bright white before I could blink. This meant I was about to wake up. I groaned, falling back into the patch of flowers. I was nowhere near ready to face my family. That was the first panic attack I'd shown them, hell the first indication I even had them. Err, at least I hoped so. Sans was a lot more perceptive sometimes than I gave him credit for. And it was a lot harder to give more credit then having already given him the title of "all-seeing".

I felt my stomach rumble. That last attack had taken a lot out of me, and no longer could I avoid the call of the wild…. Kitchen. Slowly, I let myself wake up.

It was still dark out, the sun had not yet risen. Looking over at the clock at the side of my bed- five am. I was late. Sunrise was in almost 40 minutes and I had a lot to get done before mom could drive me to the embassy at six. Firsk things Firsk (haha a pun with my own name…. God I suck at making up puns.), I needed a shower and to take care of the animals. Animals came first. Luckily, It was unbelievable how much easier life had become once I had learned magic. Feeding and cleaning took almost no time at all anymore compared to the hours it took before to do the same job. An added plus- I could do it from the warmth of my bed. Playing with the animals, now that took the same amount of time, only because I wanted it to. In fact, with the extra time I made cleaning and feeding using blue magic, it only gave me more time to play. Thankfully Alphys left my chair at the side of my bed, so that made getting out of bed and mobile nice and easy. For a half hour I played with every variety of animal in my room (and let the snakes do snake things- Corny the Corn Snake (I thank Sans for naming that one. He was right- it was a corny pun) in particular enjoys wrapping around my arm and snuggling) I checked up on the puppies, at first I was worried about Sailor Pluto (take a wild guess who named her) who was the runt of the litter and initially was very sickly…. Now she was healthy and fat and loved nothing more than to wander about since her eyes opened. Even Squirrelgirl the flying squirrel (Papyrus fell in love with comic books soon after I introduced him to the store nearby) who was normally a bit testy was just love and affection this morning.

After playtime, it was due time I took a shower. As I often preferred cold showers in the morning, my shower was short. Made it hard to overthink and disassociate. My hair dried slow, but I never blow-dried it. Too much of a hassle. Getting dressed was quick too- a long sleeve black shirt, well-worn jeans that only had a few stains. Shoes were a pain so I just slipped on some slippers. I noticed a few small, puppy-sized chew marks in my left slipper. Now my pinky toe hung out. I shrugged it off. Better off puppy chew toy at this point. They were on their last legs anyway.

I slipped out of my room as quiet as I could. I was sure Undyne and Alphys, Sans and Pap had stayed the night. All the more reason to pretend I am the wheeled ninja stalking the halls. It was ten till- plenty of time to go grab a quick breakfast. However, the closer I got to the kitchen, I smelled something cooking. Closer still, I heard muffled voices and movement. I slowed my pace and entered the mouth of the kitchen- where I saw…. Everyone? Even Sans was up (though he looked like he was asleep on his feet)

Mom was cooking breakfast, Undyne was hovering over her shoulder. Papyrus was trying to keep Sans awake and Alphys was brewing coffee. Asgore sat at the table sipping tea. I rubbed my eyes trying to make sure I was actually awake, but no, everyone was there.

It was much too early and I was much too anxious still to deal with everyone. I needed to focus on work, and the meeting in Munich, and I needed to apologize to Alleia and see what to do to keep my father and the trial under wraps for as long as possible. My head throbbed. The headache from last night only seemed to be getting worse the longer I was awake. I started carefully backing up out of sight but at the last second, I felt as though I backed into something. Something that began making a tsk-tsk as you froze in place.

"*We should get you a rear view mirror, kid. i hear once you get one you'll never look back."

I can't say I didn't internally scream seeing Sans there. Nor can I say I didn't mumble a few snarky comments under my breath that he would have absolutely hated. He was constantly getting on my case about my sarcasm- telling me puns are hilarious, snark and sarcasm are just annoying. I wonder if he sees the irony when he calls Papyrus 'mom' when he get's on Sans about something. I just find it funny.

Instead of pushing me into the kitchen, he guided me to the family room couch. He gestured to the couch and sat down. I did the same, but I kept my distance from my Dunkle just in case.

"*so kid-"

I couldn't help but tense. From his expression, I guessed he noticed. Sans turned and faced me.

"*hey, kiddo, calm down. look, 'm sorry for last night. the lot of us are."

A tense silence followed when I didn't respond.

"*do you seriously get up this early every morning? Like, kid, you wake up before pap, didn't know anyone was carpalable of that."

I was too mentally worn out to respond to that with more than an eye roll. I lifted my hands from my lap and signed.

'I like getting work done before everyone else arrives. Plus I have to do school work while there so I need to allow myself enough time to get that done.' I shrugged. I had been doing this routine for two years now. There was always more work to be done. I looked up to the clock.

'Speaking of, I need to leave soon or else I'm going to be late.'

"*late to being early? no bones about it kid, i've been gone too much. 'my laziness hasn't rubbed off on you yet. nah, kid, we figured you needed a break. tori emailed everyone last night."

I scrunched my eyebrows and stared him in the socket.

'I haven't taken a day off in years! I have a meeting at 9, a phone conference at 10-'

"*exactly, frisk. you haven't taken a day off in years. sit back- relax. you've got a ton of people there that will manage without you for a day or two. 'sides, everyone has planned out the whole day. alphys found a buncha goofy movies she wants to show ya, pap and undyne wanna see who can build the best pillow fort, tori found a couple cool recipes she wants to try out. Even mettaton's up to somethin."

I blinked a few times, trying to process this. Was no one mad? No, they probably were but wanted to hide it. Then it occurred to me what he didn't say.

'What about you?'

Now it was Sans' turn to blink a few times in surprise. His smile faded a moment, but then a second later a big, genuine grin took over.

"*me? i just wanna hang out with my favorite human."

I smiled and laid back into the couch. Maybe a day off wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. There were a few fanfiction stories I wanted to catch up on, and a couple webcomics I had abandoned that I had a whole day to devote to. A couple minutes later the room was flooded with everyone from the kitchen, everyone carrying stacks of french toast and syrup. Mom had even remembered the cinnamon sugar I loved to dose my toast in. I was shocked. Mom HATED food in the living room- especially sticky syrup. She said it was a beacon to every ant in the area. She placed a fresh stack of french toast covered in syrup and cinnamon-sugar on my lab. Everyone sat down around the room, each with stacks of toast of varying heights. Mom and alphys had been reasonable with two or three pieces, while Papyrus and Undyne, of course, had to make a competition out of it. I looked over. Sans had forgoed the toast all together and was given a cup of pure syrup. Mom would never let him drink it straight from the bottle.

Everyone asked in their own way how I was and/or how I'd slept- but no one drilled me for answers. It was nice. A small amount of stress lifted from my shoulders. I dug into my toast and it was amazing how mom could make something so simple so mouth-watering good.

Alphys flipped on an anime movie about dinosaurs (she made sure it was a subbed version with subtitles rather than dubbed.) and together we watched. It was fun. I polished off my french toast, put it aside and scooted over to Dunkle Sans. I gave him a quick kiss to the top of his skull, and upon seeing his cheeks erupt bright blue I put the tip of my fingers near my lips and signed.

'Thank you.'


	18. Goodnight Stories

Frisk had been so excited when Toriel told them that they and all their friends were going to the aquarium tomorrow. They smiled, and though it was weak, that grin was genuine. As Sans watched the the young teen hug their mother and practicaly start vibrating with rarely expressed enthusiam, he caught a glimpse of their glimmering eyes. For the first time in a long time, he felt a spark of determination forming in their SOUL. So when he woke up at three in the morning craving some ketchup and left-over fries, he was surprised to find Frisk sitting outside his room. At first he thought he was still dreaming, so he rubbed his sockets and looked again, and sure enough the kid was in fact there. They hugged their knees to their chest and just stared blankly at the wall. It was dark but Sans could have sworn there were tears sliding down their otherwise inexpressive face.

Sans began fidgeting, suddenly finding himself incredibly uncomfortable. Frisk shifted, still avoiding his gaze.

"*you… uh… okay, kid? nightmares buggin' ya?" He whispered, his voice coming out rough and hoarse from hours of blissful sleep and bone-rattling snoring. Sans rubbed his skull to try to wipe away the sweat beginning to form on the ridge of his brow. Frisk didn't respond. He cleared his throat and tried a different approach.

"*want me to get mom for ya? she… uh…." Frisk tensed, and Sans felt like slapping himself.

"*...yeah… if you wanted her ya woulda just gotten her right? right…." Frisk seemed to relax a moment, and Sans was at a loss for what to do. His eye lights turned to the pictures on the wall that Frisk was staring at so intently.

All of the pictures adorning the walls of the old house were in chronological order, different points in time Frisk had felt important to chronical on the wall. Some were pictures of them and King Fluffybuns meeting kings, queens and prime ministers to discuss important business. The others paled in importance in comparison, though these were often their favorite and most proud moments. Next to the picture of Frisk playfully flirting with the young Princess of some country on the other side of the planet, hung the picture of the first cinnamon-butterscotch pie they ever baked by themself. They had used an overwhelming amount of cinnamon and the crust had resembled coal rather than the fluffy, light crust it was meant to have, but the look of total pride Frisk had made when they shared their creation with the family was well worth the subsequent upset stomachs everyone but Frisk and Papyrus had to suffer through during the following few days.

The section directly outside of Sans' room, however, recorded the years when the kid had taken up the mantle of Ambassador full-time. It was also when Frisk's health had really started to decline. Sans had only gone to see them them once or twice that year and the pictures reflected that. Seeing Frisk struggle as hard as they did just….. It had been too much for him to watch. It took the combined wrath of Undyne and Papyrus to make Sans get his head out of his pelvis and get back into Frisk's life. Looking at all the pictures made the skeleton feel ashamed. He looked back over at Frisk, and yes, they were in fact crying- the sound of stifled cries filled the silent hallway. He also noted that they had made it to his door without crutches or a wheelchair.A surge of…. Something…. Filled the old skeleton's SOUL.

"*hey kid- you know what time it is?"

Frisk tore their eyes from the pictures to instead stare at Sans like he fell out of a tree.

"...Late?" Their voice was a raspy echo of its usual self. It took Sans a conscious effort not to flinch.

"*yup. It's choco-late. "

"... Really? You want to make hot chocolate at three forty-eight in the morning?"

"*hey, don't knock three forty-eight in the morning. in fact, eight is my lucky number. 'cause ya know eight is the laziest number, kid. if it lays down it becomes infinite…..ly lazy." He paused, waiting for a reaction out of Frisk. When he realized the terrible joke fell flat, he continued.

"* there isn't a more perfect time for hot chocolate than now." Sans extended his hand to the crying child. Frisk smirked for only a moment before wiping their tears and taking their Dunkle up on his offer.

Experience had taught Frisk to squeeze their eyelids tight so they didn't get nauseous while Sans teleported them to the… well, Frisk didn't know exactly where they were going, and perhaps they should have asked, but they trusted Sans and trusted there would be hot chocolate in their near future. Besides, they always had a strange liking to the sensations of the void. Despite the fact neither of them were moving, Frisk could feel the world change around them. They could no longer feel the hallway's carpet under their feet and no longer was there a wall supporting their back. For the few times they were brave enough to open their eyes and look into the void, Frisk wasn't sure if their eyes were open or if their eyes just hadn't adjusted to the dark. The shortcuts had an eerie resemblance to the SAVE screen, and while they tried to convince themself that they weren't the same, their heart sank deep with fear as memories of hundreds of horrible, painful deaths and eons of wasting away in the nothingness while their sanity slowly slipped away and dark thoughts weighed heavy on their SOUL. Frisk worked hard to control those thoughts. It wasn't all bad, however. Occasionally they caught a brief glimpse of an old friend. The nostalgia of signing with him and exchanging stories what seemed to have been so long ago almost helped Frisk look past how fragmented their old friend had become. At this moment, Frisk didn't have the resolve to see if he was there.

It was a few seconds until Sans told them they could open their eyes. When Frisk did, they found themself three feet in the air and falling onto the couch. They landed on the couch cushions with the loud crunch as the springs absorbed the impact. Frisk looked around, and found they weren't in their home, but instead Sans had transported them to his and uncle Papyrus' apartment. The room was lit only by the dull light that crept through the window from the street lights outside. It was a small apartment, but Papyrus had worked hard to make it home. In the low light Frisk could see the outlines of pictures and plants adorning the home. They knew the large painting of a bone was directly behind them, and that in the kitchen to their right the annoying dog was probably in the sink (which was far too short for Papyrus' tastes, but their landlord had thrown a fit last time they tried to make any 'modifications' to the kitchen). When Sans turned on the kitchen lights Frisk noticed a sock had found a home next to the tv set. At the moment there was only four post it notes attached to the wall above the sock but Frisk was sure the written argument would grow for months until Papyrus either gives up (unlikely) or Sans picks it up (equally unlikely). Sitting in the dark, Frisk turned to gaze to their dunkle in the kitchen. They listened intently as Sans got about making the hot chocolate. They focused on each sound Sans made- the creak of hinges as Sans opened a cupboard in search for a kettle, cups, and cocoa mix; the flow of water from the sink as he filled up said kettle; the clicking of the stove as he turned on the gas; the impatient tapping of padded slippers against the floor tile; the whistling of steam. As they listened Frisk could feel their breath even and their heartbeat slow, and as they wiped the last of the tears from their eyes Sans approached and handed them a warm mug. They gladly accepted it and absent-mindedly began chewing on the marshmallows floating atop the warm treat. Frisk glanced at the mug as they snacked. They rolled their eyes and smiled as the looked at an image of a dinosaur in a fuzzy robe and bunny slippers holding a glass of tea with the inscription underneath the reptile saying "Tea-Rex".

"*thought you would like that. Pap got it for me a few years ago for my birthday. for someone who hates puns, he sure does have great taste for 'em." Frisk turned to look at their Dunkle.

"... He doesn't hate puns. He just hates your puns, because 9/10 times they are terrible."

"*heh. i guess haters are just gonna hate." He shrugged, careful not to spill his own mug of hot chocolate onto the couch. Frisk ignored him, and after making sure their mug was cooled to the perfect temperature, took a sip of their drink. It was warm and calming; the perfect remedy for a hard night. When they finally put down their drink they noted their Dunkle's mug was already empty.

"... How's yours gone already?" Sans' sockets shifted, first looking like he was caught off-guard by the question, then his grin deepened. He put down his empty mug on a coaster.

"*magic, kid." He wiggled his fingers in the air a moment. Frisk couldn't decide if he was being literal or not. Sans, never looking away from the human, put his elbow on the couch and held up his skull with his hand. He looked like he was at a loss for what to say. It was quiet between them after that for a few minutes. Sans didn't quite know what to say and Frisk wouldn't open up on their own volition quite yet. Instead they just stared each other down until a gleam of glitter and colorful sprinkles caught Frisk's attention.

"... Your pet rock is bigger now than the last time I saw it."

"*hm? oh yeah- pap thought it was gettin' a bit thin so he started mixing some glitter in with its sprinkles. It started growing so much i had to get it a new leash. now pap's been telling me that since i bought it a leash i need to actually need to take it on a walk. i think he's taking the rock's happiness for granite. " Sans searched for a reaction but the kid was a tough customer- they didn't even flinch.

"Seriously Sans?... I guess this is already off to a rocky start." Sans' furrowed brow line loosened and his grin became more natural.

"*wow kid. don't be so coal-d. you're puttin' me under so much pressure- i feel like i'm stuck between a rock and a hard place." Frisk shook their head and looked their Dunkle dead in the socket.

"Dunkle Sans, you are so full of schist. " At that remark Frisk could no longer keep a straight face and giggled. Sans felt his SOUL flutter a little within his ribs. It was good for his heart to hear the human sound genuine once and awhile. He could see the anxiety and stress flow from the teenager's shoulders and the worry fade from their face. Sans was amazed at the transformation that they made- from the deadpan, all business Frisk to an actual teenager.

"You know, neither you nor Uncle Pap ever did tell me how you came about getting a pet rock?"

"*seriously? oh kid we have deprived you of this way too long. you know my bro, as cool as he is, he always knows just what to do to cheer me up? years ago- i mean long before you were born kid- i was havin a particularly hard day. i think it was 'cause something i was workin on kind of blew up in my face? eh it's not all that important. but my bro- seein me down and out told me he would help as only "the Great and Magnificent Papyrus" could? he went searching all over new home trying to find something to cheer me up- finally he ended up at the dump. he went and searched through every pile down there, and then organizing all of them in a particular way that no one but him understood but that everyone just kind of went with. well as he sorted pap found a bunch of things he knew i'd like- socks (he didn't really care if they had a pair 'cause he knew I'd just leave it lying around somewhere anyway), the finest trash, car magazines- he even found this huge pile of video games, but he said it was all just the same game called E.D.? E.T…...A.? something weird. not important. but even though he found all this great junk he couldn't find that one perfect thing he knew would just make my day. that is until he came across this last pile at the base of the waterfall. that's when it hit him."

"What hit him?" Frisk interjected, completely engrossed by the tale.

"*well, while pap was riflin' through the pile when all of a sudden he looked up- and he thought he saw something falling. then it hit him."

"*when he got his wits back about 'em, he saw this weird toy box in front of him. 'cept it was a lot heavier than any action figure he'd found before. he picked it up and read the box. "PET ROCK, PERFECT FOR ALL AGES! (*WARNING: DANGER TO ALL AGES)" or somethin' to that effect. heh, my bro ran home and was so excited he jumped through the window instead of comin' through the front door. before i could give him my spiel about how much a pane in the glass it was to replace those, he dumped this box in my hands and told me he found the perfect cheering up present and how I should bask in his gifting glory. I opened it up and there it be- the most perfect rock I ever saw. Well suffice to say it was love at first sight."

"Really? Then why don't you take care of it?"

"*i take care of it. Paps just knows my weakness and knows how to make up for 'em." Sans began to sink into the couch, his bones relaxing into place as his eyelids began to close. Frisk followed suite, slinking into the cushions and finally releasing the stress building up inside. They began to giggle. A little at first, then it continued until Frisk could hardly breathe. Soon the laughter began to subside.

"...Thanks, Dunkle Sans. For… this. I guess I needed the break." The giggling had ceased, and instead of facing their Dunkle Frisk's eyes wandered, thoughts of all different sorts began to sink into their features.

"*i'm always here for a laugh, kid. and…. i may not be good for much, but i am always there for taking a siesta with with my best pal." Sans, with one socket closed and the other cracked open just far enough to get a good look at the kid. Even in their relaxed state they looked burdened with heavy thoughts. Seeing this Sans wrapped his arm around them and brought them in close. They leaned on his shoulder and sighed. Sans felt their breathing slow and their shoulders relax until finally they fell asleep on his bony shoulder.

"...*goodnight Frisk."

(((P.S.

Okay, so I am not dead. And I am genuinely sorry this has taken as long as it has... but I'm not done yet. I gonna keep writing this. Even if I want to go back and change so much of it, I am going to keep doing this because I need to finish this. I can only hope you will continue this journey with me.)))


End file.
